Severus Snape's True Love
by Cassandra Houston
Summary: Why did Sirius Black and Severus Snape hate each other? A woman, of course. This story has been re-edited and is now open to new readers! ENJOY!!!!
1. Chapter One: The Third Year

The Liber Severi  
Liber I - Severus Snape's True Love  
  
Copyright (c) 2001 by Cassandra Houston  
Illustrations by Gabriel (http://www.angelfire.com/art/angelgabriel/)  
  
  
  
Author's Notes:  
  
Most of the characters within belong to JK Rowling. Amethyst Rayne Black Snape, Lapis Meaker and some others belong to me, Cassandra Houston. I will not accept money for this book, nor any others made with the wonderful characters JK Rowling has created. I am only putting on paper my interpretation and theory of what the Rowling characters may have been like before the Harry Potter series and what they may be like after. I am not trying to insult or steal from Rowling. I am only having fun here.  
  
If you like what you read (and I certainly hope you do), please feel free to forward a copy of this ebook along to friends, family and anyone else who may enjoy its contents.  
  
I must take the time here to thank Gabriel. Gabriel! You are a saint and I am forever in your debt!  
  
I now give you Severus Snape's True Love, the first in the Liber Severi series.  
  
Cassandra Houston  
  
  
  
Chapter One: The Third Year  
  
  
  
"Amethyst Black!"  
  
Amethyst stepped forward, took the Sorting Hat off of the stool and sat down, placing it on her head. It was actually dark and somehow quiet inside the hat. You would never know there were all those people out there!  
  
"Hmmmm, this will be difficult." A voice said in her ear. "Hufflepuff? No, that will never do. You are too adventurous for that. I see cunning. I see a very cunning girl indeed! Perhaps Slytherin." The Hat paused.  
  
Amethyst Rayne Black felt herself beginning to panic. "Away from Sirius? I couldn't bear it!" she screamed in her head.  
  
"Yesssssssss." The Sorting Hat purred. "You would also do wonderfully in Gryffindor. But ..........." Amethyst heard the Sorting Hat sigh. "Very well. Slytherin's loss, this time." The brim of the hat opened and shouted:  
  
"Gryffindor!"  
  
Amethyst took the hat off and returned it to the stool. She walked to the enthusiastically applauding Gryffindor table and sat next to her brother. Smiling broadly and laughing, Sirius Black hugged his baby sister. She sat and relaxed as the next name was called. She looked across the room to the Slytherin table. Her eyes fell on a pale boy with oily hair.  
  
  
  
Amethyst clapped as the red haired boy whose name she'd missed became a Hufflepuff. She'd been too wrapped up in the memories of her own sorting. She sat and stared across the room towards Severus Snape, who always played a part in her memories, for some unknown reason.  
  
"Ouch!" she exclaimed, as her older brother poked her in the ribs. "What'd you do that for?" she asked, a bit sharper than she intended.  
  
Sirius was looking at her closely. "Where were you? The Astronomy Tower?" He laughed.  
  
"Wha? No, of course not. I was just thinking of my own Sorting is all." She stammered.  
  
Sirius looked where her gaze had been. "Well, I don't remember you becoming a Slytherin." He said, glaring over at the Slytherin table.  
  
"Oh, Sirius!" she said, sounding exasperated. She didn't like talking about Slytherins, especially not with her brother and his band of merry men. They hated Slytherins. They said the whole bunch of them weren't worth anything.  
  
Fortunately, James Potter, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew, her brothers' best friends, began tossing peanuts at her brother, distracting him from her.  
  
Her head was full of worries as she joined the other Gryffindors on their way up to the Tower and bed. She had almost been held back last year. Her Potions mark was so low she just barely passed the class. She worried so much she barely slept that night.  
  
In the morning, Professor McGonagall stopped her in the Great Hall before breakfast. "Miss Black, would you please come with me."  
  
Amethyst followed Professor McGonagall up to her office, her stomach writhing. Upon entering, she spotted Professor Dumbledore and almost fainted. She must be in serious trouble!  
  
"Please sit down, Miss Black." Professor Dumbledore said, motioning to a large chair. Amethyst barely made it. She collapsed into the chair fearing the worse. She wondered if something might have happened to her father. No. Sirius would be here, then.  
  
"We have been looking over your grades, Miss Black and, frankly, we are worried." Professor McGonagall said, stiffly.  
  
Amethyst could only nod. They weren't going to set her back now were they? She had passed the class. Just barely, but she'd passed.  
  
"We have been thinking that you may need a tutor to aid you in your studies" Professor McGonagall said, looking down her nose at Amethyst. "Professor Dumbledore has found you such a tutor." She went on. She did not sound pleased about the idea.  
  
"Oh." Amethyst managed. The idea of someone to help her with Potions sounded wonderful to Amethyst. She hardly ever asked for help. Her brother had tried, but he didn't have much time anymore. He and his friends were always hanging out.  
  
"You will go down to the dungeons this afternoon and begin sessions once a week." Dumbledore was saying. "Dungeon Ten. Your tutor will meet you there."  
  
Dungeon Ten was deep under the school and Amethyst had never been there. She'd find it though, if it meant a chance of passing Potions this year with a decent grade. She nodded, and then found her voice. "Thank you Professor Dumbledore, Professor McGonagall." She said.  
  
Professor McGonagall's lips thinned. "Don't thank me yet, Miss Black." She said, stiffly.  
  
Dumbledore silenced her with a look. Amethyst was a bit confused, but didn't ask what the Professor meant. She was taken down to breakfast with them and hurried over to the table where she sat beside her brother.  
  
"What did they want with you?" He asked, looking stern.  
  
"Leave the kid alone." James said, looking at Sirius and frowning.  
  
Amethyst felt the colour come into her cheeks. "I'm not a kid." She said. "I'm thirteen years old. A Third Year!"  
  
"Of course you are." Remus Lupin said to her, and not in a condescending way either. "You're probably more mature than all us Fifth Years put together." And he winked at her.  
  
Amethyst didn't take this as an insult. She smiled back at Remus. It was sort of like having four brothers instead of just the one. They looked out for her, she knew, when they had time. She was grateful.  
  
That afternoon, she headed down to Dungeon Ten after dinner. She was worried she would be late, and sure enough it didn't take too long before she was convinced she was lost. She paused before an unmarked door and listened. Footsteps approached her. She peered into the darkness, trying to see who it could be.  
  
It was Severus Snape. She knew him on sight because her brother and his friends were always talking about him. How nosy he was, and jealous of James. Jealous of all of them really.  
  
Amethyst cleared her throat. "Could you tell me how to get to Dungeon Ten,  
please?"  
  
Severus Snape was a head and shoulders taller than she was. He loomed over her and seemed to glare at her. "You're Sirius Blacks sister." It wasn't a question.  
  
"Yes. I'm supposed to meet someone here. At seven o'clock." She said. "Could you tell me how to get to Dungeon Ten, please?"  
  
"You are in front of Dungeon Ten." Severus said, waving to the door. "But you'll  
need the key, won't you?"  
  
Amethyst felt instead of saw the sarcastic smile on the face of this Fifth Year Slytherin. "My tutor will have it." she said, and regretted the words immediately. She hadn't planned to admit to anyone she was in need of tutoring and she had gone and told the one person who was sure to somehow use it against her brother. Sirius had told her how Severus was always trying to get in their inner circle and maybe he'd try to use the information to get there. Blackmail.  
  
Severus smirked. He reached into the pocket of his robes and came up with a key on a chain. "And he does."  
  
Amethyst gaped at him. Severus Snape was going to be her tutor? She had been expecting a Gryffindor. This was what Professor McGonagall had meant when she'd said not to thank her.  
  
Severus unlocked and opened the door. He waved her through and closed it behind them. He lit the torches along the wall with a wave of his wand. "I am Severus Snape, but you already know that, don't you?" He looked down at her.  
  
Amethyst did not answer. She didn't have to; she knew it was a rhetorical question.  
  
Severus shook his head as he approached a caldron on a table. "Imagine me, tutoring the little sister of Sirius Black." He said. "My life is now complete." He drawled, sarcasm thick in every syllable.  
  
Amethyst spoke to the thin back. "Listen," she said, trying to sound tougher than she felt. "Don't go around trying to use the fact that I am an idiot in Potions against my brother."  
  
Severus turned to face her. "I wouldn't dream of it." he said. "Really." He added, sounding more sincere. "Your brother would probably pound me or something if he knew I'd been so close to his precious sister. Him and that gang of his." He looked at her closely. "No, I think this should remain as secret and silent as we can possibly make it. Dumbledore and McGonagall know what they're doing." He said. He waved to the caldron behind him. "Agreed. Shall we continue?"  
  
Amethyst nodded; though she didn't think her brother would pound Severus Snape if he found out he was tutoring her -- would he?  
  
  
  
By the end of a month, it was obvious to both of them that Amethyst had some sort of block about potions. She'd melted three caldrons and blown one up in their first three lessons.  
  
"Are you all right?" Severus helped Amethyst off the floor, where they had been thrown when the caldron exploded.  
  
Amethyst walked over to the table where the cauldron's remains were still smoking. As she held her arms to steady their shaking, she discovered that her skin was very dry. Similarly, when she ran her fingers through it, her hair was dry as a bone, even though a potion to prevent thirst had drenched them both. "I'm fine." She wailed, covering her face in her hands and crying.  
  
Severus looked extremely uncomfortable. He went to drag his fingers through his own hair only to find it, too was dry -- not simply in the sense of an absence of wetness, but really dry, not at all oily.  
  
He was rubbing the top of his head trying to understand what had just happened when he was brought back to earth by the huge sob hefted by Amethyst. "I'll fail!" she cried. "I'll never figure this out!"  
  
"Amethyst." He called over her sobs. She didn't appear to hear him. He called her again and again. He walked behind her and called her. She spun around and found herself facing his chest. They both backed up quickly.  
  
"Yes." She sobbed, whipping her face with her hand.  
  
Severus handed her a handkerchief. "You didn't exactly fail, you know." He said, trying to smile. She made him so nervous; he was surprised he hadn't managed to blow something up. She was extremely pretty. It was hard to imagine that she was related to that arrogant Sirius.  
  
Amethyst sniffed, taking the handkerchief and blowing her nose. "What?" She said. She looked wildly around the room. "The potion was supposed to explode?"  
  
"Good point." Severus Snape smiled the first genuine smile Amethyst had ever seen on his face. She thought it looked rather nice.  
  
Suddenly he seemed to realise what he was doing and quickly removed the smile from his face. "Look at me... My hair." He ran his fingers through it again. "It seems your Anti-Thirst potion has some sort of drying property. It would have to have to in order to dry out my hair."  
  
Amethyst burst out laughing. Between guffaws, she tried to apologise. "Oh! I'm so sorry Severus. I don't mean to laugh at you! But you're right. I guess I'm not so bad at Potions after all."  
  
Severus laughed long with her. It was the first time either had laughed in the others presence. Getting himself under control, Severus said. "What exactly did you do?"  
  
Amethyst looked at him, gaining control of herself. "I, well, I followed your instructions." She said.  
  
Severus was on his knees with some old rags he'd taken from a table near the door. He looked up when she said this. "No you didn't, or the potion wouldn't have exploded." He said simply. He mopped up the mess and transferred it to a glass jar. "I'm going to analyze this," he said. "Maybe I can make sense of it."  
  
He looked around the room. His eyes landed on a shelf with many potions ingredients upon it. He slowly approached the shelf for a closer look, then went to the table with the exploded caldron and peered inside. He picked a broken jar off of the floor and read the label. He picked up another. Then another.  
  
"I think it probably had something to do with this Sand Dollar Dust. I'll find out later." He looked at his watch. "Tell you what. We won't experiment with potions for a little while? Lets talk theory, all right?" He looked at Amethyst. "Why do you keep making stupid mistakes?"  
  
Amethyst turned to the table and began clearing the exploded caldron off of it. She found that she actually wasn't insulted by the question. She was making stupid mistakes. It wasn't an insult, she decided, simply a statement. Once the table was cleared, she hopped on it and looked at her hands.  
  
"I wish I knew." She said. "I'm not Prefect material, but I'm not stupid either, if you can believe that." She looked at Severus, who was two tables away nodding his head. Amethyst wondered why he kept such a great distance between himself and her. Because of her brother and his friends? She rubbed her forehead, thinking hard.  
  
"Sirius has always been the smart one." She said slowly, an idea coming to her. "He's charming and smart and handsome and popular. I'm no bubblehead, but I'm none of the things my brother is. Maybe I'm sabotaging myself somehow." She mused. "Negative attention is better than none at all, right?"  
  
Severus stared at her. He couldn't believe his ears. Amethyst was the most charming and beautiful creature he'd ever seen. She had plenty of the boys at school looking at her, but her brother kept them at a distance. And except for her Potions grades, McGonagall had already told him that she would have been top of her class. But he only nodded. He could relate to what she was saying. They seemed to have something in common after all.  
  
He chuckled. "Some would say so. Yes." He locked eyes with her for a moment and his stomach flopped.  
  
  
  
They spent their tutoring lessons just talking from then until just before Christmas. At the end of their last lesson before the Holidays Severus talked to Amethyst about her progress:  
  
"I hear your doing better in Potions class." He said. He'd managed to move from two tables away to one. Amethyst took that to mean he was feeling more comfortable with her.  
  
She nodded. She was suddenly afraid the tutoring lessons would end. She didn't want that, somehow. "I'm causing less explosions, that's for sure." She looked at him. "But I still need some hands-on experience."  
  
"We'll start mixing ingredients again when classes start up again in January." He told her. "I don't think you'll blow up any more caldrons."  
  
She smiled at him. They had learned a great deal about each other. Amethyst was willing to say that Severus was even a friend to her, although she doubted she'd ever admit this in public. Especially to Sirius, James, Remus and Peter.  
  
"Good." She said. She went into the pocket of her robes and brought out the package she'd brought for him. "I will be going home tomorrow, and I won't see you on Christmas." She said, holding out the package. "So I wanted to give this to you now. Merry Christmas."  
  
Severus stared at the package for so long, Amethyst was sure he was going to refuse it. Then, slowly, he walked over and took it. Amethyst noticed his hands were trembling as he opened the package and looked inside.  
  
She had never returned the handkerchief he'd given her that day she'd blown up the caldron. She was now giving him three replacements. They were light green, hemmed with silver. The Slytherin house colours. He unfolded them. Inside was a medium sized vial. A potion. He looked at her, questioning.  
  
"Well, I lost your handkerchief." She lied. She hadn't wanted to return it. "I'm giving you three to replace them. One for each month you've put up with my stupidity."  
  
"You aren't stupid." He snapped, angrily. "Never let me hear you saying that again!"  
  
"Alright, I'm sorry." Amethyst said, a bit taken aback by his anger. "The potion is the Hair Drying Potion. I noticed you were using the potion we made." And she looked away quickly.  
  
She was right, in a way. Severus had found out what the potion had been made of and made himself a little. He only used it when he was going to see her. He didn't want her thinking of him as that slimy, oily haired Snape, like her brother and his friends did.  
  
"You made this on your own?" He asked. He sounded impressed.  
  
"Yes. I broke in here earlier this week and made it. I made the handkerchiefs myself too. Got the material in Hogsmeade."  
  
Severus was speechless. He stood staring down at her. "Thank you." He whispered. "I have never received a present from another student before." He touched the top of her head, tentatively. "Never mind the Potions Mistress Amethyst Black." He said. He had thought of saying something like "The prettiest girl in the whole school" but found he didn't have the nerve.  
  
Amethyst beamed at him. She threw her arms around him and hugged him tight. Severus tensed, but she did not let go for a long moment. "I couldn't have done any of it without you, Severus!" she said into his robes.  
  
When she had let him go, she noticed his face was a deep red. He fumbled in his pocket and fished out a package of his own. He handed it to her.  
  
She smiled as she accepted it. Inside were three very long hair ribbons in the Gryffindor colours of red and gold. Her jaw dropped.  
  
"One for each month." Severus said, "It would appear we had similar thoughts."  
His voice was shaking. "You don't -"  
  
"I love them." She said, taking one of the ribbons and putting the other two into her pocket. She took the ribbon and tied it in her hair, which flowed past her hips. Severus thought she looked radiant.  
  
She hugged him again and this time he managed to put his arms around her loosely. She looked up at him while still in his arms and said, "Thank you so much, Severus. I will treasure this always."  
  
He resisted the urge to kiss her, remembering who her brother was.  
  
As per their agreement, they did not acknowledge each other on the Hogwarts Express on the way home for the Christmas holidays, but Severus overheard several Gryffindor girls loudly admiring the ribbon he'd given her, which she'd worked into her long plait. He grinned to himself when she said she liked it so much, she would be wearing her hair like that often.  
  
  
  
By the time the Easter holidays rolled around, Severus was comfortable enough to stand right beside Amethyst while they mixed potion after potion in Dungeon Ten. They learned a great deal about each other during these sessions, talking both about their families and potions. Besides exchanging birthdays, which ironically were the same day, although he was two years older than she was, Amethyst learned that Severus has a very bad home life. His mother was dead and his father was abusive. She suspected that his father had something to do with his mother's death, though Severus never confirmed this. Severus learned that Amethyst's mother was also dead, although she had not died the same way his had. He also learned that her mother had been a Slytherin; something that she said was a deep secret in the family. Her father had been a Gryffindor.  
  
Final exams loomed. Amethyst seemed on the verge of some sort of nervous collapse. Severus assured her constantly that she would do wonderfully with her Potions. They met in Dungeon Ten after her exam, which she felt very good about. The results would be out in a week. Since exams were over there was no reason for them to continue their tutoring sessions, they said good-bye.  
  
On June the eighth, the day the exam results came out, Severus received an owl over breakfast. He had been looking over his exam results and thinking about Amethyst's. He'd done wonderfully, as expected, but found no joy in it. No one would be pleased. There was no one to please. A large owl landed in the middle of his breakfast plate. The note attached read:  
  
Meet D5 4 - A  
  
He grinned.  
  
"What's that supposed to mean?" Came a drawling voice from over his shoulder. Lucius Malfoy had read the note over his shoulder.  
  
Snape frowned. Lucius Malfoy was becoming more and more of an annoyance. "Aren't you going to read your exam results, Lucius?" he asked, avoiding the question. Beside Lucius, Narcissa giggled.  
  
"Oh shut up," Lucius snapped at her, completely distracted.  
  
The owl had taken flight and was replaced with another. Severus took this note and read:  
  
Happy Birthday - Father  
  
Severus tore it up and stuffed it in the pitcher of pumpkin juice. He looked across the room at the Gryffindor table. Amethyst was leaning against her brothers' shoulder and crying! She couldn't have failed her exams. She couldn't have! But he couldn't go over there now. Her brother, James Potter, Peter Pettigrew, Remus Lupin and Lily Evans, surrounded Amethyst. He sighed and resolved to wait until four o'clock and see her in Dungeon Ten.  
  
He spent the day with Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle and a bunch of other simpering idiots he'd rather not be bothered with today. His temper flared more than usual and he took perverse pleasure with throwing Lucius Malfoy into the lake with a well-placed Cannon Charm. He watched, laughing, while Lucius swam back to shore, being grabbed more than once by the various things that lived in the lake.  
  
He managed to throw the gang off his back before the Leaving Feast and went straight to Dungeon Ten. Amethyst was on the far side of the room.  
  
"Are you all right?" He asked first thing. "I saw you crying over breakfast."  
  
She turned at the sound of his voice. She was beaming. "I got one hundred and ten percent!" She shouted. "Severus, I passed!" and she ran across the room and threw herself into his arms. Not thinking, just reacting, Severus returned the embrace and when she looked up at him, he kissed her for the first time.  
  
The kiss lingered. When they finally broke the kiss, they did not break their bodies apart. They remained in each other's arms staring at each other. "I'm sorry." Severus suddenly stammered, breaking the bond and backing away. "I shouldn't have done that. I got carried away. I'm sorry."  
  
Amethyst grabbed his hand. "Please don't, Severus. Don't be sorry." She said, pulling him back towards her. She did not wrap her arms around him this time, but looked up into his black eyes. She blinked. "I was crying because I passed. I was so relieved. Of course everyone thought I'd gone mad, but, there you go." She smiled. "And I owe it all to you."  
  
Severus shook his head, but Amethyst grabbed his chin and stopped the movement. "I do." She said. "You helped me get over my phobia about potions. You are a wonderful friend, Severus."  
  
Severus gaped at her. She kissed him. When they broke apart, she bit her lower lip. "I like kissing you. Not that I've ever kissed anyone like that before, mind." She looked at him thoughtfully.  
  
"Better not tell your brother that." Severus said, thinking of the beating he'd get if Sirius ever found out he'd just kissed his sister, not once, but twice.  
  
Amethyst snorted. "I no longer care what my brother thinks." She said defiantly. "I'm a young woman now, fourteen years old and can make my own decisions who I like and who I don't."  
  
Severus broke into a smile. "That reminds me. I needed an opportunity to give you this." he pulled a small package out of the pocket of his robes. "Happy birthday, Amethyst."  
  
She opened it and gasped at the lovely, golf ball sized amethyst inside. She took it and looked at it closely. She looked up and saw Severus had his hand on the door, ready to open it.  
  
"Severus," she said. "Where are you going?"  
  
"We have had our last tutoring session. I'm not your tutor anymore and we hardly dare to be," he paused. "Friends."  
  
"Are you saying good-bye to me?" Amethyst said; her jaw slacked.  
  
Severus took his hand from the door and took her in his arms again. "Yes." He said. "You have taught me more than you know, Amethyst Black." And he kissed her one more time then took her long braid and laid it over her shoulder. He ran his finger along the braid, feeling the ribbon he'd given her as well as her silky black hair. Then he turned and left the room. 


	2. Chapter Two: The Summer Holidays and the...

The Liber Severi  
Liber I - Severus Snape's True Love  
  
Copyright (c) 2001 by Cassandra Houston  
Illustrations by Gabriel (http://www.angelfire.com/art/angelgabriel/)  
  
  
  
Author's Notes:  
  
Most of the characters within belong to JK Rowling. Amethyst Rayne Black Snape, Lapis Meaker and some others belong to me, Cassandra Houston. I will not accept money for this book, nor any others made with the wonderful characters JK Rowling has created. I am only putting on paper my interpretation and theory of what the Rowling characters may have been like before the Harry Potter series and what they may be like after. I am not trying to insult or steal from Rowling. I am only having fun here.  
  
If you like what you read (and I certainly hope you do), please feel free to forward a copy of this ebook along to friends, family and anyone else who may enjoy its contents.  
  
I must take the time here to thank Gabriel. Gabriel! You are a saint and I am forever in your debt!  
  
I now give you Severus Snape's True Love, the first in the Liber Severi series.  
  
Cassandra Houston  
  
  
Chapter Two: The Summer Holidays and the Fourth Year.  
  
  
Severus flopped on his bed and regretted it instantly. It appeared his father had managed to crack another of his ribs. He winced, but made no noise. Four weeks left, he thought. Going back to Hogwarts was hardly fun and games, but anyplace was better than home.  
  
He sighed as he lifted his shirt and felt his ribs. Yes. Cracked, if not broken. A gentle knocking at the door caused him to start.  
  
"Master Severus?" a voice called. High and squeaky, it could only be Sissy, their House Elf.  
  
"Come in, Sissy." He said. She was carrying a basket of strawberries. Without a word, he sat up and removed his shirt. She felt for the damaged ribs and then made little 'tisk' noises as she healed them with her special House Elf magic while he ate strawberries. She always brought him strawberries when she came to patch him up, no matter what the season. He loved them.  
  
"He's not breaking nothing this time, Master Severus." Sissy squeaked. "You must be more careful." She warned him for the thousandth time. "You know how your father gets."  
  
Severus knew, all right. And no matter how much he tried to stay out of his way, his father always found excuses to talk to him, then beat him.  
  
An owl landed on the windowsill. Sissy approached it and took it's letter. The owl flew off and Sissy turned to face Severus.  
  
"For you, Master Severus." She said, in an awed sort of voice. Severus did not receive letters. He had no friends, as far as Sissy knew. She handed him the note, bowed low and left the room.  
  
Severus stared at the letter in his hands. He recognised the handwriting at once.  
  
  
  
Dear Severus,  
  
My summer holiday is going well, hope yours is also. I have to admit, though, that I am lonely for someone to talk to. Sirius spends all of his time with James and Dad just doesn't have time for me anymore. Would you like to get together for tea before we go back to school? I know you're not my tutor anymore, but I consider you a friend and I thought you might be lonely for company too. Please let me know one way or another.  
  
Yours, Amethyst  
  
  
  
Severus smiled for the first time since leaving the dungeons back at Hogwarts two weeks ago. Amethyst was thinking about him! His heart flopped. Did he dare? He read the note again then got up, wincing a bit and went to his desk. He took a piece of parchment and a quill and ink and wrote.  
  
  
  
Dear Amethyst,  
  
I doubt my summer is going quite as well as yours is. I also doubt that your brother will take kindly to my visiting your home to see you. Why don't we meet in a neutral place? I know of a wonderful place where we could have lunch. How about July 8th at noon?  
  
Severus  
  
  
  
He wrote directions to a place he figured was about halfway between where the two of them lived. He knew this place well. It would be about a two-mile walk for him, but he wouldn't mind. He told her to meet him in front of the old stone pillar, which was near his long ago hiding place.  
  
"Get over here, Obsidian." He said to a huge jet-black owl. The owl landed in front of him and held out his leg while Severus attached the note. As he watched Obsidian fly away, he hoped his ribs would be healed in ten days and that he'd have no further injuries.  
  
  
  
Amethyst stood, uncertain in front of a huge stone pillar at the edge of a wood. It had been quite a walk.  
  
She turned and saw Severus walking towards her. She ran to him. She hadn't planed on this, but it felt right. She hadn't realised how much she missed him until she saw him. He caught her with his left arm, as he had a basket in his other hand. She noticed him wince, before he kissed her, quickly.  
  
He looked over his shoulder. "C'mon" he said and he took her hand and led her into the forest. Five feet into it he took her in his arms again and kissed her. He broke the kiss and said, a little breathlessly, "I didn't mean that. Got carried away again."  
  
"Severus, stop apologizing for kissing me." She said, exasperated. "If I didn't want you to kiss me do you really think you could?" she asked.  
  
He didn't reply. She playfully hit him in the chest and he winced.  
  
"What?"  
  
"Nothing." He said. "Fell off my broom yesterday. No big deal. Pigeon startled me and I landed on a fence." He started walking into the forest, Amethyst at his heels. He wasn't sure she would buy his lie.  
  
He led her deep into the forest and into a clearing. Amethyst gasped as she saw the beauty of the place. Almost a whole acre spread out before her. A little brook babbled to itself and across from there was the smallest little cabin.  
  
"Severus." She breathed, looking around her awestruck.  
  
"No one knows about this place." He said, taking her hand and leading her into the clearing near the brook. "Just you and me. It's protected. My mother used to bring me here when I was a little boy." He took a deep breath and sat the basket down. Out of it came a blanket, which he spread on the ground. He sat on it and patted a place next to him, where Amethyst sat.  
  
"Tell me about your holiday so far." He said.  
  
"Nothing to tell, really." She said, shrugging. "Sirius and James have been practicing their little pranks on me for a solid week now. Remus is out of the country. I must be getting pretty boring to them because they've spent the last week hanging out with Lily and Peter." She sighed. "Dad is just busy, I guess. So I've been entertaining myself." She smiled. "But I missed my friend. I'm glad you wrote back." She put her hand on his. "And your summer?"  
  
Severus' first instinct was to lie. However he found himself telling her about his summer. Avoiding his father, and the two beatings he'd gotten so far, just for being there.  
  
"So you didn't fall off a broom?" she said, looking at him closely.  
  
"Broom fell on me, is more like it." he grunted. "I'm sorry I lied to you, Amethyst."  
  
"Lets be honest with each other from now on, all right?" she asked. At his nod, she went on. "You talk about these beatings like I talk about my brothers practical jokes. Like they don't mean anything. But they have to bother you, don't they?"  
  
Severus shrugged. "It has been like this for about five years now. Ever since my mother died. She used to bring me here when Father would beat one of us. Or both of us." He looked around the clearing. "I haven't been here since my mother died." He looked at Amethyst. "Whatever made me tell you, I wonder?"  
  
Amethyst laughed. "Thanks a lot."  
  
"No!" he said quickly, "I didn't mean anything bad by it. Just that my mother told me this was a sacred place. Protected from anyone who might harm me." He sighed and looked away. "The lies parents tell their children. Anyway, it was the first place I thought of when I considered places to meet you."  
  
Amethyst turned his face towards her. "But I wouldn't ever hurt you, Severus." She bit her lip. "I care too much about you."  
  
He leaned forward and kissed her again. "Thanks." He said.  
  
They lunched on the food Sissy had prepared for Severus and chatted the day away, just enjoying each other. They met every week for the remainder of the holidays.  
  
Their last meeting was bittersweet. They would be going back to school in a few days. Severus was insistent they not let anyone know about their relationship.  
  
"Listen to me, Amethyst" Severus said, calmly. "Your brother, James Potter, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew all hate me. For that, they aren't exactly my first choice as friend either." Amethyst opened her mouth to protest and Severus laid a finger on them. "Shhhh." He said. He lowered his hand. "Your brother hates me. No argument. The feeling is mutual. They're sneaky. Maybe sneakier than I am, even." He grinned. "In any event, neither of us needs him to know about us. You think he hates me now, what do you think he would he say if he knew I was in lov-." He stopped in mid sentence. She looked into his eyes. She had grown over the summer, and her head was right under his chin. He put a finger under her chin, took a deep breath and said. "What would he say if he knew I was in love with his sister?"  
  
Amethyst looked into those fathoms deep black eyes, speechless. She recovered to say. "Probably the same thing he'd say if he knew I was in love with you." She whispered.  
  
Severus closed his eyes, relief sweeping him.  
  
They lost their virginity to each other that afternoon.  
  
  
  
  
That year was a rough one for Severus and Amethyst. They got together when they could, mostly to talk because they didn't have time for much of anything else. Amethyst was watching the animosity between her brother and her lover grow seemingly by the day. The two of them seemed to be trying everything they could think of to get each other in trouble. The detentions flew through the air like the snow in a blizzard.  
  
Christmas came and went and somehow Amethyst and Severus managed to see each other in their hideaway every day during the holidays. Amethyst dodged questions about her whereabouts like she was a professional Quidditch player. It was much easier for Severus, who had only to keep his father in a drunken stupor. For the first time in a long time, he did not receive any beatings over the holidays.  
  
Spring approached and was in the air. Amethyst interrupted heated kissing sessions between James Potter and Lily Evans on more than one occasion. Because she was always either on her way to or from a rendezvous with Severus, she said nothing about it.  
  
It was at one of these meetings that Severus told her about Madame Pomfrey taking Remus Lupin out the Whomping Willow once a month. He was near obsessed with it. Amethyst knew that Remus disappeared every month, and beginning last year, he seemed to be taking her brother, James and Peter with him wherever it was they went. But Amethyst had a very bad feeling about the whole thing, so when Severus told her that Sirius had told him that there was a way to get past the Whomping Willow and that he was going to try it out she was almost in a panic. She knew how much her brother hated Severus. She strongly suspected, and hated herself for it, that her brother was setting Severus up for something that might hurt him very badly.  
  
She almost pondered on the subject too long. The very night she knew Severus to be planning to follow Remus; she found her brother and James in the Gryffindor Common Room. Sirius seemed in exceptionally good humor this night, laughing and talking animatedly with James.  
  
Amethyst took a deep breath and stepped up to her brother. "What is going to happen to Severus Snape when he tries to follow Remus into the Whomping Willow?" She asked quietly, so no one else would hear.  
  
Both Sirius and James looked astonished. Sirius recovered, but he didn't tell her to mind her own business. He asked, "What do you know about Severus Snape?" At the same time, James looked at Sirius and said, "What have you done? Are you mad?"  
  
Sirius ignored James. "I asked you a question, little sister." He hissed. Amethyst actually took a step backward and stared at her brother. James stepped in between them. "Amethyst, what is Severus planning to do?"  
  
Amethyst looked into James blue eyes and said, her voice trembling. "Severus told me that Sirius told him that if he poked the knot in the Whomping Willow he could stop the branches and follow Remus to wherever it is that you all disappear to each month."  
  
James let go of Amethyst and he stared at Sirius openmouthed. "Are you trying to get him killed, Sirius?" He demanded, before bounding out of the portrait hole and disappearing.  
  
"Severus could get killed?" Amethyst said, her voice rising with barely controlled panic.  
  
Sirius grabbed her arm and dragged her out of the portrait hole. He dragged her down the hall, hissing in her ear. "You are seeing Severus Snape, aren't you?" Amethyst didn't answer. She was too scared. "What have I told you about him. My own sister. How could you be so stupid?" He was ranting as he dragged her to a window, where they could just see James trying to drag Severus away from the Whomping Willow. Sirius saw this and cursed loudly. Amethyst was crying freely now. Through her tears she could see both James and Severus lying still under the branches. Were they dead? No. She could see them both moving a bit. She saw Professor Dumbledore and Madame Pomfrey running out, kneeling beside the boys and conjuring stretchers. They were going to the Hospital Wing.  
  
Sirius swore loudly watching this. He took a deep breath and turned to his sister. "You are seeing Severus Snape, aren't you?"  
  
Amethyst had stopped crying. She heard a click somewhere inside her head. She stood as tall as she could and looked her brother with all the loathing she could muster. "Yes, I am." She said, very slowly and very calmly.  
  
Sirius recoiled as if he'd been hit. "Well, you'll stop. Immediately. Before people start talking. Do you understand me?"  
  
Amethyst did not break her eye contact with her brother. She felt something snap again. "Get stuffed." She said and she turned to leave.  
  
Sirius grabbed her arm. "You listen to me Ame-." But Amethyst interrupted him by pulling out her wand and hissing "Liberatio". Sirius flew down the hall and against a wall. He slid to the floor. Amethyst walked up to him and looked down at him.  
  
"No. You listen to me." She hissed. "I have little doubt that all of this will somehow or other be glossed over and forgotten. You will get off Scott free as usual. But I won't forget, brother. I will not forget that you tried to kill Severus Snape tonight. And if you try it again, I might just kill you!"  
  
She turned and walked away, leaving her brother lying on the floor, moaning in pain.  
  
The Gryffindor Common Room was empty and silent when she returned to it. She sat in a chair by the fire and cried for all she was worth. She had no idea how long she sat there when the portrait hole opened and both Sirius and James walked in. James had a black eye and was walking very stiffly. Sirius glared at Amethyst a moment before he marched upstairs, apparently to bed. James approached Amethyst slowly.  
  
"Sirius told me what happened" James said softly.  
  
Amethyst stopped crying and held up her hand. "I don't want to hear your excuses for my brother, James." She said. James sighed. "Please. Tell me how Severus is."  
  
James nodded. "He came out of it pretty well. A broken arm and a couple of broken ribs, which Madame Pomfrey mended in less than a minute." He said. "He's madder than a wet Hippogriff, though." He added.  
  
Amethyst actually smiled. "I can't say I blame him." She said. "Thank you James."  
  
James nodded and headed up to the boys dormitory. He came down again, five minutes later with a shimmering bundle. "You might need this. It's my Invisibility Cloak. You can sneak into the Hospital Wing and see Severus." He laid it beside her and returned upstairs.  
  
Amethyst looked at her watch. It was two o'clock in the morning. She took a deep breath and stood. She put on the Invisibility Cloak and left Gryffindor Tower.  
  
  
  
Severus Snape laid ramrod straight in a bed in the corner of the Hospital Wing. Dumbledore had left, after swearing him to secrecy. Remus Lupin was a Werewolf! But that was not what had Severus fuming. What had him fuming was all that had transpired tonight. "Prank, my eye", thought Severus, staring at the ceiling. Sirius Black had tried to kill him. James Potter had saved his life! Severus Snape owed James Potter a life debt! Severus was not handling this well.  
  
Out of the corner of his eye he saw the hospital door slowly open and then shut again. He turned to look, but saw nothing. Maybe he really was going mad.  
  
"Severus." Said a voice in his ear, making him jump. "It's me. Amethyst."  
  
Severus turned his head and looked at the chair where Madame Pomfrey had been sitting an hour ago, before she had mended his broken bones and gone back to bed. He saw Amethyst's face, but that was all.  
  
She smiled at the look on his face. "James lent me this." She whispered.  
  
Severus would have preferred it all be a hallucination then to hear that name again tonight. It looked like he owed James a favour, too. "You heard what happened?" He whispered, half hoping she had and half hoping she hadn't.  
  
Her head went up and down, and then dropped to his level as she sank to the floor on her knees. "I saw what happened. I went to ask Sirius what was going to happen to you if you tried to follow Remus." She whispered the entire story into his ear.  
  
He gaped at her. "You what?" he asked in a hoarse whisper.  
  
"I told him that if he ever pulled a stunt like that again, I would kill him." She whispered back. "And I meant it, Severus."  
  
Severus moaned. "This is too much." He looked at Amethysts face. "Do you know what you've done, Amethyst? You have told your brother that you would choose me over him." He covered his eyes with his good hand.  
  
Amethyst sighed. "Severus. You know my mother was a Slytherin. Did I ever tell you that my father and brother couldn't stand that she was? You see, Mother never told Father she'd been in Slytherin. He was ten years older than she was. They were never in Hogwarts together. When my father found out, he had a fit! There was yelling and screaming. They threw curses at each other like they were peanuts. I think he actually hit her once. I was only five, you see. Anyway, mother stopped speaking to him. Stopped speaking to all of us. She took to her room. She killed herself, Severus." She was crying quietly now. Severus raised his good arm from his eyes and brushed away her tears.  
  
"Sirius never forgave her. He blamed her. He has hated people from Slytherin even before he came here and got caught up in all this house rivalry stuff. I think he must be convinced that you will hurt me as badly as my mother hurt he and my father." She took his hand and kissed it, and then she put it back on his chest.  
  
"I'd better go." She whispered, leaning in and kissing him lightly on the lips. "Sometimes I think the Sorting Hat made a dreadful mistake, Severus. I don't feel like I am in the right house. Tonight, I felt like I am all the things Gryffindors say are wrong with Slytherins." And she covered her head with the Invisibility Cloak. "Remember, I love you." She said.  
  
He heard her footsteps retreat and saw the hospital wing door open and close without a sound.  
  
  
  
Exams came and went. The Sixth years took their O.W.L's. The day before the Leaving Feast, Severus was walking down a deserted corridor in the dungeons when he was grabbed and slammed against a wall. He was unsurprised to see Sirius Black holding him by the collar.  
  
"Stay away from my sister!" Sirius hissed. He slammed Severus against the wall again and repeated himself.  
  
Severus Snape didn't give a nasty grin, even though he was tempted. "Listen, Black. You and I don't like each other. Hell, we hate each other. But we also both love your sister." This simple statement made Sirius slam Severus' head against the wall again.  
  
Severus sighed. "Black, killing me won't change anything. As a matter of fact, if you do, Amethyst will never forgive you for trying to get me killed."  
  
This statement of fact caused Sirius Black to release Severus. Before Severus could straighten his robes, however, Sirius punched him in the jaw, knocking him down.  
  
"Stay away from my sister." Sirius said very slowly and deliberately. 


	3. Chapter Three: Till Death Do Us Part

The Liber Severi  
Liber I - Severus Snape's True Love  
  
Copyright (c) 2001 by Cassandra Houston  
Illustrations by Gabriel (http://www.angelfire.com/art/angelgabriel/)  
  
  
  
Author's Notes:  
  
Most of the characters within belong to JK Rowling. Amethyst Rayne Black Snape, Lapis Meaker and some others belong to me, Cassandra Houston. I will not accept money for this book, nor any others made with the wonderful characters JK Rowling has created. I am only putting on paper my interpretation and theory of what the Rowling characters may have been like before the Harry Potter series and what they may be like after. I am not trying to insult or steal from Rowling. I am only having fun here.  
  
If you like what you read (and I certainly hope you do), please feel free to forward a copy of this ebook along to friends, family and anyone else who may enjoy its contents.  
  
I must take the time here to thank Gabriel. Gabriel! You are a saint and I am forever in your debt!  
  
I now give you Severus Snape's True Love, the first in the Liber Severi series.  
  
Cassandra Houston  
  
Chapter Three: Till Death Do Us Part  
  
  
  
"Was it bad?" Severus asked, as he stroked Amethysts hair. They were on their usual blanket in the secret grove that Severus considered theirs. Amethyst was curled up n the ground with her head in his lap, crying.  
  
"Sirius told Father and he had a heart attack. Sirius is blaming me for Fathers' death!" she raised her head and looked into Severus' eyes. "But I am not to blame! I didn't kill my father! Hate killed my father!" She sighed. "Do you know what my father said to me before he grabbed his chest and keeled over, Severus? 'Slytherin bitch, just like your mother.' Well, my mother was not a bitch. She must have known not to tell Father she was a Slytherin. She must have known better." she stood and began pacing. "Well bugger them. My brother and my father. I love a Slytherin and if they just don't like it they can just -" and she broke down. Severus stood and held her. He honestly had no idea how to respond. She answered all of his unasked questions when she calmed down enough to speak. "The Sorting Hat must have made a mistake. It considered putting me in Slytherin, but it didn't. It put me with my brother, in Gryffindor. For you, I would leave my house, and my brother. I don't think that's wrong. It's just the way it is." and she kissed him.  
  
The two of them had as fine a summer as two people in love could have, when they were trying not to be found out. They did not see each other as much as they would have liked, because Sirius was keeping an eagle eye on Amethyst and Severus' father was having a very bad summer. Sissy attended Severus many times, for broken ribs, broken arms, and dislocated joints.  
  
The next school year was also relatively uneventful. Sirius and Amethyst had a very long talk one night (they were actually magically locked in a room by James and Remus and told to talk until they reached some sort of understanding) and patched their differences up as well as could be expected, as he knew his sister was still coupled with his archenemy and just could not accept the fact. But he loved his sister and was unwilling to throw away his relationship with her.  
  
His relationship with Severus, however, deteriorated to the point where he was attacking him at every opportunity, threatening to kill him if he didn't stop seeing his sister. Severus took these beatings as he had taken all the beatings all his life, in stride. Although no one at school knew why, everyone knew that Sirius Black and James Potter both despised Severus Snape. Jealousy was suspected, but no one could really see the depth of the hatred. It was obvious that James loved Severus like a brother when compared to the hatred Sirius had. The hatred was almost palpable.  
  
Severus got enough N.E.W.T's to qualify for a position in the Ministry of Magic when he left school, but somehow no one could see him doing that. Severus would not tell Amethyst what he had in mind during the summer. It annoyed her greatly, but she did not press things. She would be going back to Hogwarts alone come September. She still had another two years to go.  
  
  
  
"I want to teach you some things. Things that will protect you. From those who might want to do you harm." He told her that summer, in their clearing. It was their first meeting since school ended and the first time she had seen him in about two weeks.  
  
She looked up at him, her face suddenly somber. "Harm me?" she said, incredulous. "What are you talking about, Severus?"  
  
"Do you love me, Amethyst?" he asked, quietly but intensely.  
  
"Yes, of course I do. You know that Severus." She said, confused. She sat up and turned to him.  
  
Severus straightened up and pulled the left sleeve of his robes up his arm. Amethyst saw the Dark Mark. The mark of a Death Eater. She moved her hand towards it, unbelieving.  
  
"Severus," she breathed. She ripped her eyes from the Dark Mark and looked into her lovers' eyes. "When?"  
  
His eyes clouded over. "A few days ago." He said, distantly. He spoke as he did when talking about his fathers' beatings. Like he was a disinterested observer.  
  
"Am I supposed to stop loving you because you are branded with the Dark Mark?" she asked, after several minutes' silence. Severus' eyes cleared when she said this and he seemed to come back to himself.  
  
"I am a Death Eater now." He said, covering his arm. Amethyst noticed that the mark was fading fast. In a few minutes it would not be visible at all.  
  
Amethyst said. "What does that mean, Severus?"  
  
Severus looked out over the brook and sighed a huge sigh. "I cannot tell you that, my love. I am sorry, but it would place you in a position of great danger. As it is I have told you too much." He ran his fingers through his hair. "Please let it be enough to know that if you love me, if you stay with me as my girlfriend, you are putting your very life in danger. Your brother is a lot of hot air, really. But the Death Eaters must never find out about you, because they would then know my greatest weakness, bar none. They would use that weakness, use you, to control me, if they ever thought me untrustworthy or felt they needed leverage over me. Right now, I am the perfect Death Eater. Angry and arrogant and spiteful. Full of hate and violence. Incapable of emotion. But if they were to find out about you." He broke off. "They would -" He didn't seem to be able to finish the thought.  
  
"And you are planning on teaching me things to help me protect myself." She said, quietly. "You are talking about teaching me the Dark Arts, aren't you?"  
  
"Defense would not be enough." He said, still looking across the brook. He lowered his head into his hand. "Am I mad?" he asked himself. "I should just modify your memory and have done."  
  
Amethyst grabbed his arm as he reached for his wand. "Severus," she said sharply, causing him to look at her. "You asked me if I love you and now I must ask you the same thing. Do you love me, Severus?"  
  
He nodded. "More than life." He said.  
  
"Then teach me whatever you have to in order to keep me safe, if that's what you have to do." She said, her eyes burning with intensity he'd never seen there before. "Do not rob me of my memory of you. Kill me first."  
  
Severus stared at her for a long time before he nodded.  
  
He taught her first the spell to hide your magic from detection. He went on to teach her the Breaking Curse, the Wounding Curse and the Unforgivable Curses. He taught her to apparate as well. By the time she was preparing to return to Hogwarts, Severus had taught Amethyst everything he knew about the Dark Arts.  
  
  
  
Amethyst was in very low spirits on the Hogwarts Express. She cheered herself up by chatting with a few girls from her house. They had never been friends, thinking her snobbish. More than one of them had also had involvement with her brother and avoided getting close because of it.  
  
Amethyst walked into the Great Hall for the Sorting and the feast in slightly higher spirits. She loved getting lost in the memories of her own sorting all those years ago. She sat down and looked towards the staff table, where she was hoping to get a good look at the new Potions teacher, as last year Professor Liquimin had decided to retire at last.  
  
It was a very good thing that she sat down before she looked up at the staff table. For when she looked towards the staff table she almost fainted. Severus Snape was standing with Dumbledore. They shook hands and he sat in the seat usually reserved for the Potions Instructor.  
  
She did not lose herself at the Sorting this year. She concentrated on it as she had never concentrated on anything in order to keep her eyes from the staff table and Severus.  
  
Dumbledore had begun his speech. Amethyst caught parts of it, like Severus being the youngest Potions teacher the school had ever had and some other things. A girl in her dormitory leaned over and whispered. "Isn't that the greasy, slimy Slytherin the one your brother and James Potter hated so much? How did he ever become a teacher?"  
  
Amethyst resisted the urge so curse the girl, and simply showed as much shock as everyone else who'd ever known Severus Snape as a student. The shock was no act, actually. She barely touched her food during the Feast and was badgered by the girls in her dormitory into visiting Madame Pomfrey, who gave her some stomach powders and made her lie down for an hour before sending her back to Gryffindor Tower.  
  
Severus caught up with her and took her into the empty Transfiguration classroom. "Are you all right?" He asked.  
  
Amethyst hit him hard on the arm and raged. "Why didn't you tell me?" She paced the room. "The shock almost killed me."  
  
Severus was a bit taken aback by her anger. "I'm sorry, really." He said. "Dumbledore offered the job to me at the last minute and told me not to tell anyone. I almost turned it down for two years of living off of Fathers money. It's going to be hard enough being a teacher to people who used to be classmates, but having to teach you?" He shook his head.  
  
Severus had liked hardly any of the students when he was a student. Now he was Professor Snape and a lot of the students were having a hard time adjusting. Severus did not change his personality, however, and he was just a rough on his former classmates as he was on the poor First years that had never heard of him before.  
  
Amethyst did her level best not to do anything that might bring Severus' eyes on her without reason. She was suddenly glad of the three years of practice they'd had pretending to not notice each other. She was elated when he took ten points from Gryffindor because she and another girl were whispering, and not paying attention.  
  
As Severus was a teacher now, he had rooms to himself. They still had to be very careful, perhaps even more careful than when Severus was just a student. But they still saw each other alone as much as they could.  
  
Potions was her easiest class, and not because of any favoritism from Severus. As a matter of fact, he was harder on her than any of the other Gryffindors, and everyone, Gryffindors, Hufflepuffs, Ravenclaws and Slytherins as well as the entire staff of Hogwarts put it down to his hatred of Sirius. They assumed Severus was taking his hatred of Sirius out on his sister. They both knew everyone would think this way and did nothing to change the opinion of the whole school. Potions was her easiest class because she had been so close to Severus these last three years. He'd taught her everything he knew about Potions. She barely needed take the class at all.  
  
She excelled in all of her classes and got as many O.W.L's as she could walk away with. At home, during the holidays, Sirius, who couldn't have been angrier with Severus teaching at Hogwarts if she'd announced she was going to have his baby, grilled her half to death. When he threatened to go to Dumbledore, she was forced to use a spell to hide the detection of magic (lest she get an owl from the Ministry of Magic) and then put a Memory Charm on her brother. She only erased the part of his memory that related to Severus as a teacher at Hogwarts. Severus said, dryly, that she ought to have erased Sirius' entire memory of him. But it was enough that Sirius had no idea that Severus Snape was a teacher at Hogwarts.  
  
That summer she and Severus didn't see very much of each other. Her brother kept a very close watch on her and she was hard pressed to get away. Severus was quite busy anyway, doing something he refused to tell her about.  
  
That second year of Severus teaching was tense. Voldemort was gaining power at an alarming rate. People were more and more afraid, but Amethyst felt safe at Hogwarts. But the tension filled the air. It did not help when Severus was forced to take a leave of absence in the middle of the year because the Dark Mark was spotted over his house. His father was dead. Killed by the Death Eaters. So Amethyst finished out her last year at Hogwarts without the comfort of her lover.  
  
On the last day of July, Amethyst went with Sirius to the first birthday party of Lily and James son, Harry. Amethyst saw him and yearned for one of her own. She thought how best to bring it up with Severus. He beat her to it.  
  
"Will you marry me?" Severus asked on bended knee on September the first.  
  
Amethyst was struck speechless with joy. She accepted the proposal with a nod.  
  
They saw each other last on October the 28th, three days before Lily and James Potter were killed. They spent the next eighteen years with an ocean between them; each thinking the other was dead. 


	4. Chapter Four: Eighteen Years Later

The Liber Severi  
Liber I - Severus Snape's True Love  
  
Copyright (c) 2001 by Cassandra Houston  
Illustrations by Gabriel (http://www.angelfire.com/art/angelgabriel/)  
  
  
  
Author's Notes:  
  
Most of the characters within belong to JK Rowling. Amethyst Rayne Black Snape, Lapis Meaker and some others belong to me, Cassandra Houston. I will not accept money for this book, nor any others made with the wonderful characters JK Rowling has created. I am only putting on paper my interpretation and theory of what the Rowling characters may have been like before the Harry Potter series and what they may be like after. I am not trying to insult or steal from Rowling. I am only having fun here.  
  
If you like what you read (and I certainly hope you do), please feel free to forward a copy of this ebook along to friends, family and anyone else who may enjoy its contents.  
  
I must take the time here to thank Gabriel. Gabriel! You are a saint and I am forever in your debt!  
  
I now give you Severus Snape's True Love, the first in the Liber Severi series.  
  
Cassandra Houston  
  
  
Chapter Four: Eighteen Years Later  
  
  
  
  
Severus Snape arrived at the Leaky Caldron and spotted Remus Lupin immediately. He was standing near the counter talking to that idiot proprietor, what was his name? Tom. Severus approached them. Lupin turned and absolutely beamed at Severus. "Severus!" he chimed. "I am so glad you decided to come. Lets sit over here." He motioned into a corner. "Tom, drinks, please."  
  
Severus followed Lupin to the table, where they remained embroiled in conversation about the weather until Tom had delivered their drinks and gone away. Severus pushed his drink aside and asked, "What is it, Lupin? This had better be good."  
  
Lupin took a small sip from his glass. "Yes, Severus, this is good." He said, still smiling. "I got an owl yesterday. As soon as I read the note I sent you the owl that brings you here this afternoon." He reached into his robes and removed a folded piece of parchment. He held it out to Severus. "It's from Amethyst." He said.  
  
Severus' jaw dropped. "You're lying! Amethyst Black is dead." he accused. "That is not a subject you want to joke about with me, Lupin!"  
  
"Severus, we are years from school and my practical joke days." Lupin said. "I am not joking. Those days may come again, now that Lord Voldemort has fallen at last and the Death Eaters are disbanded, but today I am not joking." And he laid the letter on the table and slid it in front of Severus. "Today, I am, again, the middleman."  
  
Severus looked at the letter longingly, but did not reach for it. Lupin said, "Severus, read it. Don't be afraid. But do not drop it in shock, either. The message was sent to me magically encrypted. It can be read from her hand to mine and from my hand to yours. Once that letter leaves your hand, it will destroy itself."  
  
Severus looked at Lupin sharply. Remus Lupin had always been able to smell fear. Probably the werewolf in him. He took the note and unfolded it. It read:  
  
  
  
Dear Remus,  
  
It was a shock hearing from you after all these years. I have missed Britain terribly, but remained here in the US because I had no reason or desire to return to the UK and live without my love. And now you tell me that my brother told me a lie 18 years ago and took advantage of my grief to get me out of the country.  
  
Yes, you heard correctly, I am a teacher. I have been teaching at the Salem Institute for eighteen years now. Defense Against The Dark Arts, ironically. Here in the US there is little fear of Voldemort. The Secretary of Magic has never considered him a threat, for some unknown reason. Americans are very good at turning a blind eye. The Muggles cannot get enough of Britain news, but the Wizards show no interest whatsoever in news from Britain. You cannot even get a Daily Prophet in this country. Not that I ever tried. But they welcomed me, although they have always thought I may have been on the run from the trouble in Britain. They gave me the Dark Arts job because I knew not only the Defense parts but I actually knew Dark Arts and they reasoned that it would only improve my teaching to know both sides of the subject. I am, of course, forbidden to teach Dark Arts, and I never have. Not out of any sense of moral obligation, mind, but because they were taught me by Severus and I have avoided the subject of Severus Snape for 18 years.  
  
Which, of course, brings me to the subject of the very owl you have sent me - Severus Snape. You tell me he is alive. Not dead. Not killed. You tell me he is responsible for the death of Peter Pettigrew, who framed my brother and sent him to Azkaban. That he has cleared my brothers' name. That he has done great things to see to the fall of Lord Voldemort as a double agent and has never yet been discovered as one. And you tell me that he remembers me. That he, too was lied to by my brother. That we both thought the other dead. That you suspect he still loves me as much as I love him. Still.  
  
Remus, my anger is rising again, and this will become a Howler if I do not stop soon. I will treat you as a liar until I find out if you are telling me the truth or not. You see, I have become as bitter as you say Severus has become. The ironies, eh? I will do as you ask. If you are lying I do not think the pain would be much greater than before.  
  
Until July 2nd, then, Amethyst  
  
  
  
Severus read the letter twice. He looked at Lupin. "This is genuine?" he asked, his voice shaking.  
  
Lupin replied with a soft voice. "Yes, Severus. It is genuine. I can prove everything."  
  
Severus read the letter again. "July second. That was yesterday."  
  
Lupin finished his drink and stood. "Follow me, Severus."  
  
Severus dropped the note, which flared brightly and disappeared in a puff of blue smoke and followed Lupin up three flights of stairs to the suites. There were only two suites at the Leaky Caldron. Lupin went to the door marked "2" and opened it.  
  
Severus followed Lupin into a large room richly furnished. Large windows made the room as light as outside. A woman stood before one of these large windows, watching Diagon Alley below her. Severus saw rich purple robes and a long, thick black braid, which came almost to the floor. Interwoven into this braid was a very familiar ribbon. He stepped tentatively forward, past Lupin, his hand outstretched as if to touch the long braid.  
  
Amethyst Rayne Black turned around and spotted Severus. She took a sharp intake of breath and slowly began walking towards him. She, too, stretched her hand in front of her. Their fingertips touched.  
  
Still arms lengths away from each other, Amethyst and Severus simply stood and stared at each other for several minutes, not speaking. Amethyst was the first to speak.  
  
"Severus." She whispered.  
  
"Amethyst." Severus whispered back. "I cannot believe -" he stopped speaking.  
  
Amethyst entwined her fingers with Severus and brought her other hand up to clasp his hand in both of hers. She stepped forward as he did and they were soon very close together.  
  
Amethyst now looked up at Severus and touched his face. "My dream." She whispered again, and closed her eyes against her tears. "So long I dreamed you were alive and I would hold you again."  
  
Severus leaned forward and tenderly kissed her eyelids. "We are together again. At last." He whispered, as he wrapped his arms around her.  
  
They remained that way for hours, just holding each other as if afraid to let go, and neither of them noticed when Remus Lupin left them alone.  
  
  
  
Three days later, Remus Lupin went to answer a knock on his door. He did not often get visitors, but today he was expecting a houseful.  
  
He opened the door and smiled. Standing before him were Amethyst and Severus.  
  
"Remus." Amethyst said, her voice alight with happiness.  
  
"Come in! Please!" Lupin opened the door for them and they entered. He sat them down and quickly conjured tea. "Your early."  
  
"I owe you an apology." She said softly.  
  
Lupin smiled broadly. "No you do not, Amethyst." He said, simply. "I am only sorry I could not have done something sooner." And he truly meant it.  
  
Amethyst took Lupins' hand. "You did not know. My brother was blinded by hatred when it came to Severus. It never occurred to me that he would stoop so low as to tell us each the other was dead in his attempt to keep us apart."  
  
"He's still blinded." Severus said. He drank some tea and looked at Lupin. He was about to speak again, when there was another knock at the door. Amethyst looked sharply at Lupin.  
  
"Don't worry. He'll promise to be on his best behavior." Lupin said standing.  
  
He did not hear Amethyst's mumbles as he went to answer the door. He looked at his old friend Sirius Black. He stepped out of his door, closing it behind him.  
  
"Hello Sirius." Lupin said. "I thought you were going to come alone?" he said looking at the young man and woman beside him.  
  
Harry Potter and Hermione Granger both raised their eyebrows. Sirius looked puzzled. "They came over this morning as I was on my way out. They haven't seen you in a while and decided to tag along. I didn't know you expected me to be alone."  
  
"Well," Lupin said more to himself than anyone. "Maybe it will go more smoothly this way. With witnesses."  
  
"Remus, what are you talking about. Why are we standing out here?" Sirius said.  
  
"Because I wanted a word before you went in. I have some guests and I don't want trouble, so you'd better promise me Sirius that you will be civil." Lupin said, with a deadly serious look at Sirius.  
  
Sirius nodded but Lupin looked unsure for a moment, then opened the door and let them into his house.  
  
Harry saw Severus Snape and a witch he did not know standing near the fireplace. Before he could wonder what in the world Professor Snape was doing in Lupins house, the witch pulled out her wand, pointed it in their direction and hissed softly "Everbero".  
  
Sirius was thrown off his feet and thrown across the room. He hit the wall with a thud and slid to the floor.  
  
Severus' eyebrows rose and a slight grin touched his lips. Lupin yelled "Amethyst!" while grabbing Harry's wand arm. He looked sideways at Hermione and said, "Don't do anything." Harry and Hermione relaxed slightly, looking at all the people in the room.  
  
Sirius was getting slowly to his feet. The witch was looking at Sirius with great loathing.  
  
"Hello, Amethyst." He grunted, still bent over in pain. "I guess I deserved that."  
  
The witch still held her wand on Sirius. "You deserve the Cruciatus curse." She  
said in a deadly soft voice.  
  
Harry felt himself tense. He had no idea what was going on. He was relieved when the woman responded to Lupin's "Put the wand away."  
  
The woman lowered her wand and said. "Forgive me, Remus."  
  
"Not at all." Lupin said. "He did deserve it."  
  
"Ummmm," Harry said nervously. "What's going on here?"  
  
Lupin gave him half a grin. "I would like you to meet Amethyst Black." he waved an arm at the witch.  
  
Amethyst nodded to Harry and Hermione.  
  
"Black?" Harry said, looking at where his godfather had just appeared beside him.  
  
"My sister." Sirius grunted, feeling his ribs and wincing. He was glaring, not at his sister, but at Severus.  
  
"Your what?" Harry gasped. "I didn't know you had a sister." Said Hermione.  
  
"Yes, well," Lupin said. "If you'll hand me your wands, more will be revealed, I'm sure."  
  
Harry gasped as Sirius, Severus and Amethyst all handed Lupin their wands. Feeling a bit numb, Harry and Hermione did the same. Lupin pocketed all five wands.  
  
"Please sit down, Sirius. Harry." Lupin motioned to the couch. "Tea?"  
  
Harry had never in his life been in such an odd situation. He, Sirius and Hermione sat on the couch while Severus and Amethyst remained standing by the fireplace. Lupin stood in between the two groups like some weird referee.  
  
"Well," said Lupin after about five minutes of complete silence. "Since no one else is going to speak, I will tell the story to the best of my ability. It will likely be much longer with you two here, just so you know." He looked at Harry, who had been watching murderous stares exchanged between the others in the room.  
  
"You know already that Severus and Sirius hate each other." He said. "What you don't know is exactly why."  
  
Hermione couldn't help but interrupt. "It's because of that stupid prank, isn't it Professor, I mean, Remus. With the Whomping Willow."  
  
Severus was scowling. "It went further back than that, Miss Granger." He hissed.  
  
"Severus." Amethyst said soothingly, apparently back in control of herself. She looked at Severus with more tenderness than Harry or Hermione had ever seen anyone show to him.  
  
She stepped forward. "I will tell the story, Remus. I know more of it, anyway." She said. She took a deep breath and sighed. "I am two years younger than my brother, here." She began. "We were close about a million years ago. By the time we were both at Hogwarts, we were growing further apart. Sirius had his friends, and you most likely know who they were. And, of course, they had their enemies." She glanced back at Severus and said. "Severus Snape was probably their worst enemy back at school. By the time they were in their Fifth year and I was in my Third you would have thought there was nothing to be done to make them hate each other more." She sighed. "I managed to change all that."  
  
"Potions class was a living nightmare for me. I just could not figure it out. I was blowing up a caldron a week it seemed. I came close to having to repeat the Third year because of my Potions grade." She looked at her brother with a barely softening expression. "Sirius spoke to our father who spoke to the headmaster of the school. Albus Dumbledore assigned me a tutor. The smartest student in the school when it came to potions. Professor McGonagall was not pleased, but Dumbledore had spoken. Severus Snape became my Potions tutor."  
  
"He was tall and thin and my brother and his friends had told me what a greasy, oily hairy slime ball he was." She looked at Harry and Hermione who were both grinning. They couldn't help themselves, even with Severus in the room. But he didn't look angry. He seemed to be remembering this part of the story himself, and the two new graduates of Hogwarts were amazed to see that he did not seem angry, but pensive. "I see the description stuck." She said softly. Harry and Hermione both recovered themselves.  
  
"I suppose it could not be called untrue, even so long ago." She chuckled. "But I was terrified of him based upon rumor alone. But it turned out that Severus Snape did not live up to his reputation with me. He was an excellent tutor and he helped me get over my phobia of potions. We talked a lot. About potions and eventually about ourselves. Our lives were very similar, as it turned out. But we'd agreed to keep the tutoring sessions as secret as we could. No one ever knew he tutored me back in my Fourth year except for us and McGonagall and Dumbledore. Including my brother."  
  
Sirius looked at her sister. "So that's how you met." He said, looking directly at Severus. "OK, that one I'll actually apologise for. I thought you'd sought her out to get closer to us."  
  
Snape sneered, then nodded. "Accepted." He said, quickly. It looked like the word may have hurt him.  
  
"Well, it's a start anyway." Lupin said, rolling his eyes.  
  
"I was madly in love with him before my Third year was over." Amethyst caught the looks on Harry's and Hermione's faces and laughed out loud. "It seems impossible to you, I know, but it is true."  
  
"It was the prank my brother played on Severus that tipped our hand to him." She said, her voice turning icy. "I was so worried that Severus would get hurt, I threw caution to the winds and asked my brother what would happen to him if he tried to follow Remus. James ran immediately to stop Severus. My brother, however, dragged me off to watch." She turned her eyes to her brother, who had his face in his hands. "He was actually disappointed that Severus wasn't killed. He was yelling at me to not see him anymore. Didn't I know what he was like? Didn't I know?" She stopped and took a calming breath. "Of course I knew. I knew my brother was dead wrong. I knew my brother had deliberately tried to get the man I loved killed. We fought that night, my brother and I. He made me choose between him and Severus. And I choose Severus."  
  
Hermione gasped. "Why?" she asked, breathlessly.  
  
"I hear the Severus Snape you knew at Hogwarts was an angry and bitter man, Hermione." Amethyst said. Hermione nodded, not looking at Snape. "I am here today to tell you why he was that way." She looked over her shoulder. "Unless you would like to tell them, Severus."  
  
Severus just shook his head, no. "You're doing just fine."  
  
Amethyst smiled and looked back at the former Hogwarts students. "Lets see. Yes, I choose my lover over my brother." She smiled at Hermione's look. "Sirius stopped speaking to me and he and Severus seemed to have developed a hatred of each other that would last forever. Severus was doing everything he could think of to get Sirius and his friends expelled and they came back at him with their own. They had to invent detentions for them all." She chuckled. "But basically they all left Hogwarts without getting each other expelled."  
  
"Dumbledore hired Severus to teach Potions that very summer, and so he became my teacher. He was the only teacher, before or since, to be hired as a teacher right out of finishing the school. I cannot tell you how odd it was to have him as my teacher. I had to put a Memory charm on my own brother when he threatened to tell Dumbledore about us. That's why he had no idea that Severus was working at Hogwarts when Remus told him." She said. "You probably also know that that summer was the summer that Severus joined the Death Eaters." Seeing Harry and Hermione's stunned expressions, she bit her lip. "Or maybe you don't."  
  
"Severus was convinced that I would be in horrible danger if the Death Eaters ever found out about me, so he taught me everything he knew about the Dark Arts." She said. "Turned out it was a good thing, too, because it was the summer he left Hogwarts that Dumbledore asked Severus to become a double agent."  
  
"At great personal risk." Harry said. He looked at Snape. "She was the 'great personal risk', wasn't she?"  
  
Severus nodded. "Just being a Death Eater put Amethyst in danger. Being a double agent put her in double danger. If they were to find out that I was a spy for Dumbledore they would have killed her in the worse way possible and forced me to watch before they killed me."  
  
"We finally come to the point we have all been waiting for." Amethyst said, clapping her hands. "And the place where the story begins to fragment. I can only tell you my side of this."  
  
"Shortly before Voldemort killed your parents." She said quietly, glancing at Harry, but her eyes were on Sirius. "I was taken by my brother to see a man. This man told me that he was an Auror and that Severus was dead. I was so grief stricken that I didn't even think about it. My kind-hearted brother paid for me to go away. I couldn't bear staying here. There were memories everywhere. I went to the United States. You may not know that while the Muggles in the United States cannot get enough information about Britain, American wizards couldn't care less about wizards in Britain. You can't even get a Daily Prophet in the United States. So I never knew what happened. I have lived the years since then as a bitter old maid. No friends. No one to care about and no one who cared about me."  
  
Hermione looked at Sirius openmouthed. Harry asked Snape. "And you, Profes-, I mean, Sev, I mean. What about you?"  
  
Severus smiled an angry smile and spoke with his jaw tightly clenched. "I received a visit from Sirius the morning after your parents died, Potter. He ranted and raved at me about how the Death Eaters had found out that his sister was my lover and how because she was his sister, they went to his home and killed her, in an attempt to convince him to tell them where your parents were hidden." His voice rose slightly. "He told me there wasn't even a body and asked me if I was happy about what my fellow Death Eaters had done to his sister. What Sirius did not know, was that all of this had apparently transpired at the very same time I was in front of Dumbledore, telling him that Voldemort knew where the Potters were and when he was likely to attack. That is why I spent so much time and energy trying to keep your arse out of trouble, Potter. Not out of some favour to James, although that played a part, but because you were the price I paid. My penance. Somehow keeping you alive helped keep Amethyst alive for me. I often thought of her when I saw you. The pain of it somehow comforted me." He took a deep breath and looked about to say more, but changed his mind. He clamped his hands very tightly in front of him and seemed about to break them he was squeezing so hard.  
  
Harry felt his throat go tight. Even though he and Snape had managed to avoid as much open hostility towards each other after his Fourth year, Snape was still vicious when it came to him. Now Harry understood why. Lupin cleared his throat. "And so they each thought the other dead and lived on with that pain for all these years." He said sadly. "Severus went back to teaching at Hogwarts but was bitter. Very bitter. And each year it got worse. And in the US, the same thing was happening to Amethyst." He shook his head. Hermione was crying openly. "I found out about a month ago that Amethyst was still alive. One of wizards aiding us in the fights with Voldemort was from America and he was telling me about his Defense Against The Dark Arts teacher after I complimented him on the perfect Stunning Spell he used. You remember the one, Severus? The one that allowed you to get close enough to Peter to snap his neck." Severus nodded. "It's funny. If it weren't for Severus, Sirius, you would still be an outlaw. Hearing their story now, I'm very surprised he did it."  
  
Snape snarled. "Do you honestly believe I did it for him, Lupin?" His eyes bored into Sirius'. "I did it because of Amethyst. I knew she would not want him living the life of an outlaw forever. Call it more penance, if you must."  
  
He clapped his hands. "Anyway, he asked me if I might know this teacher, as she was British. 'Her name is Amethyst Black', he said. I thought I had heard him wrong. I told him she was dead and he told me I was mad. He told me how to get in touch and I sent her an owl."  
  
He looked at Severus and Amethyst and said, "They were reunited three days ago."  
  
Sirius moaned and buried his face in his hands again. Hermione glared at him. "I'm surprised at you, Sirius Black." She snapped. "How could you do such a thing?"  
  
Sirius looked up at Hermione. "You know Snape." He growled. "You tell me."  
  
Hermione kept shaking her head in disbelief. Harry's mind was reeling. It was an incredible story he'd just heard.  
  
Sirius suddenly stood. "Why am I here again, Remus?" He snapped. "To get yet another lecture on how I shouldn't hate Severus Snape for shagging my sister? He turned to his sister. "After what that Slytherin did to our father! How could you is what I would like to know!"  
  
Amethyst walked over to her brother and slapped him hard across the face. Hermione screamed and covered her mouth. Amethyst raised her hand to slap him again and Severus quickly stepped up and grabbed her arm. "Don't." he said, softly. Harry was amazed at the look in Severus' eyes when he looked at Amethyst. Love and concern. The whole thing was surreal.  
  
"How dare you even think of comparing Severus with our mother!" she hissed. She relaxed and Snape released her arm. She covered her face with her hands and sobbed once. She then took another deep breath. She lowered her hands and looked at her brother again. She shook her head and moved around him, Harry and Hermione towards the door. Severus was now facing Sirius.  
  
"You just don't get it, do you?" He said. And he followed Amethyst to the door.  
  
"Remus." Snape called, and Lupin went to the door, where the three of them huddled and spoke in low voices for a moment. All Harry could make out was Amethyst suddenly saying "Absolutely not!" After another moment, she nodded and Lupin hugged her and, to Harry's surprise, shook Severus' hand. He returned their wands to them. And then they were gone.  
  
Lupin returned to his sitting room. He patted Hermione on the shoulder. She was  
still shaking and white. He cleared his throat.  
  
"We have been invited to a wedding." He said. Sirius turned to face him. "All of us." He emphasized.  
  
"Bloody hell." Sirius said, shaking his head. "I don't believe her." He walked to the door. "Remus, my wand, please."  
  
Lupin returned his wand to him and Sirius left without another word.  
  
Lupin sighed and turned to Harry and Hermione. He returned their wands to them, saying. "I am sorry you had to see that." He said softly.  
  
"Remus," Hermione said, her voice shaking.  
  
"Hermione," Lupin said, gently. "Sirius has always been angry about his mother. You see, she killed herself when Amethyst was only five years old or so. She doesn't remember her very well. Their father was a Gryffindor. He found out somehow, no one knows how. They weren't at Hogwarts together, you see. He was ten years older than his wife."  
  
"She was a Slytherin." Harry said, quietly.  
  
"Right in one, Harry." Lupin said, sadly. "Right in one."  
  
  
  
Hogsmeade was always beautiful. In a private room in the Three Broomsticks at nine o'clock on the morning of August the first, eight people gathered for the very informal wedding of Amethyst Black to Severus Snape. The people in attendance were Albus Dumbledore, who performed the ceremony, Remus Lupin, Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley, and Minerva McGonagall. Both Amethyst and Severus wanted a small ceremony.  
  
The wedding went of without a hitch. It also went off without Sirius Black.  
  
After the wedding, the small party in the room for drinks. Ron, having gotten himself a bit tipsy, asked Severus if he had used the Imperius curse to get Amethyst to marry him. Hermione hit him hard in the arm and Ron went red. Severus raised his eyebrows and said, silky as always. "I am a Potions Master, Mister Weasley. You figure it out." And everyone laughed, including Severus and  
Ron.  
  
As the party broke up, late in the evening, Hermione pulled Ron aside and whispered in his ear. His eyes widened as she spoke to him. Suddenly he said "What the hell." loud enough for everyone to hear. Hermione led him back over to the group and poked Ron in the ribs to make him speak.  
  
Ron turned red again. "Professor Snape," he said. "Hermione and I are getting married ourselves in two weeks." He glanced at Hermione, who nodded, turning slightly pink. "There's room for two more." He said in a rush.  
  
Severus actually smiled. "I thank you for that gracious invitation which I have no doubt Miss Granger has put you up to." He said softly. "But we must decline. This ceremony was small for two reasons, Weasley. The first being that neither my new wife nor myself has ever been popular." He paused, even though he knew no one there could argue the fact. "The second being that I cannot afford to be seen in the company of Harry Potter at this juncture. It would be too dangerous for both of us."  
  
The only people in attendance who had arrived on foot were McGonagall and Dumbledore. They had arrived early and secured the room, putting charms and spells on the place that no one would know what the room was being used for. The rest, to include the bride and groom, had apparated. Just because Voldemort had finally been defeated did not mean it was completely safe. In the last couple of years, Harry, Ron and Hermione had come to understand Severus a bit more, but they could not appear to like him anymore than he could pretend to like them, although feelings all around had, in reality, changed. And so, in two weeks time, Ron and Hermione were married in a huge ceremony, but without the presence of Severus Snape and his wife. 


	5. Chapter Five: The Professors Snape

The Liber Severi  
Liber I - Severus Snape's True Love  
  
Copyright (c) 2001 by Cassandra Houston  
Illustrations by Gabriel (http://www.angelfire.com/art/angelgabriel/)  
  
  
  
Author's Notes:  
  
Most of the characters within belong to JK Rowling. Amethyst Rayne Black Snape, Lapis Meaker and some others belong to me, Cassandra Houston. I will not accept money for this book, nor any others made with the wonderful characters JK Rowling has created. I am only putting on paper my interpretation and theory of what the Rowling characters may have been like before the Harry Potter series and what they may be like after. I am not trying to insult or steal from Rowling. I am only having fun here.  
  
If you like what you read (and I certainly hope you do), please feel free to forward a copy of this ebook along to friends, family and anyone else who may enjoy its contents.  
  
I must take the time here to thank Gabriel. Gabriel! You are a saint and I am forever in your debt!  
  
I now give you Severus Snape's True Love, the first in the Liber Severi series.  
  
Cassandra Houston  
  
  
Chapter Five: The Professors Snape  
  
  
  
The students arriving two weeks later were captivated at the Welcoming Feast by the beautiful new teacher at the Staff table. Small and thin with violet blue eyes and a bun that covered the entire top of her head; she was obviously the new Defense Against The Dark Arts teacher. The students were equally fascinated that Professor Snape not only did not glare daggers at this new teacher, but was also sitting talking animatedly with her. Many noticed that he seemed healthier somehow. Not so pale. He was even seen to smile.  
  
After the Sorting and before the Feast, Dumbledore made a few announcements, ending his usual speech with what everyone above First Year wanted to know; who the new Defense Against The Dark Arts teacher was.  
  
"As you know, we will be welcoming a new Defense Against The Dark Arts teacher. Please join me in welcoming to our school, Professor Snape."  
  
The silence was deafening. The First Years all clapped, but no one else did. Jaws dropped all around the Great Hall. Dumbledore went on.  
  
"Professor Amethyst Snape."  
  
A murmuring broke out in the Great Hall. At the Gryffindor table, Colin and Dennis Creevy, now in their fourth and seventh years at Hogwarts stared. Colin leaned forward and tapped Ginny Weasley on the arm. "Snape has a sister?"  
  
Ginny gaped at him. "Don't be such an idiot!" She snapped. "Of course he doesn't!" she stared up at the staff table and breathed. "He's gotten married! Look at her hand. Look at his hand. See the rings?" Ginny had been taken by Ron and told in confidence about the wedding. Although she was dying to tell, she did not.  
  
Dennis Creevy fell off the bench in astonishment. He wasn't the only one picking himself off the floor. It didn't take many people long to realise that Amethyst Snape was not Severus Snapes sister. The shock rocked the Great Hall. No one seemed to know what to do, or say. Dumbledore clapped his hands together and said, finally.  
  
"Well, then. On with the Feast."  
  
  
  
Whispers followed Amethyst Snape from the moment she left her Dungeon office/home until she got to her classroom.  
  
"Look at her!"  
  
"Can you believe anyone would marry Snape?"  
  
"Could something be wrong with her?"  
  
"Is she mad?"  
  
"Maybe he bewitched her?"  
  
She smiled to herself as she opened the door to her classroom. The silence was deafening. If she were blind, she would believe the room empty. She put her briefcase on the floor and turned to face her first class. The class stared back at her, as if she were some weird insect or other.  
  
She cleared her throat. "Well. I don't need to introduce myself, I see." She said, addressing the class. She took the roll call, then retrieving her Defense Against the Dark Arts textbook from her briefcase and opened it. Then she snapped it shut.  
  
"All right." She said, coldly. She walked to the front of her desk and hopped on it. "What say we just clear the air and have a nice 'Getting to know me' session?" She said.  
  
The class as a whole blushed. Amethyst went on, glaring. "I would dare say that you all have about a million questions." She clapped her hands. "On with them, then. The faster I can get them out of the way the faster I can start doing my job."  
  
She crossed her legs and waited. Again silence settled. A freckled hand rose.  
  
"Miss. Weasley, isn't it?"  
  
The flaming redhead blushed. "Yes, Professor." She searched the room for encouragement. "Well, Professor. I. Well. That is to say." She floundered.  
  
Amethyst raised her eyebrows at Ginny Weasley. "You would be wondering something along the lines of the whispers that have followed me from my chambers to this classroom?"  
  
Again the class blushed as a whole.  
  
Professor A. Snape looked very stern. Almost as stern as her husband. "We shall suffice it to say that there is someone for everyone. Professor Severus Snape and I are, shall we say, birds of a feather. As you will soon find out." She gave a cold smile to her class, pulled her book from behind her back and began her lesson.  
  
  
  
Lying beside her husband that night, after making love, Amethyst and Severus compared notes on their first day of school.  
  
"You wouldn't believe the looks I got today." Amethyst said into Severus' chest, smiling.  
  
Severus chuckled. "Well, I am not the favourite teacher around here, you know." He stroked her long hair; now free of the bun and pins she was required to wear while teaching. "No one here has ever known a happy Snape. And I am willing to bet they have never seen the likes of you before."  
  
Amethyst grinned. "You have always been so reserved and aloof to people, Severus. I would dare say I was the only one you really talked to while we went to this school."  
  
"You were." Severus said, simply. "Malfoy and the rest never knew me. They knew who I wanted them to know." He shifted and wrapped his arms around his wife. "You are the only one to know me. The only one I ever let in."  
  
  
  
The students became used to having not one, but two Professor Snape's. Those above the First Year took a bit more time getting used to a slightly less hostile Severus Snape. The "old" Snape was not gone completely, however. Draco Malfoy, who was left behind to repeat his seventh and final year at Hogwarts along with his cronies Crabbe and Goyle, found this out during the second week of the term, when his shock at the marriage of his head of house wore off some.  
  
The Slytherins reacted with group shock at the news that the head of their house had suddenly gotten married. Draco, as usual, sent off an owl to his father at the earliest opportunity. He had apparently received an answer and approached Snape during the weekly meeting of Slytherins a month after term began.  
  
"Is there any further business?" Snape asked. He was sitting in his usual spot by the fire, surrounded by Slytherins.  
  
Draco raised his hand and Snape nodded to him to go ahead. "Professor Snape." Draco drawled. "I got an owl from my father after dinner this evening."  
  
Snape frowned. "I am glad to see your father is still speaking to you, Malfoy, but why should any of us care?"  
  
Draco grinned. "He was writing me about your new wife." He said.  
  
"Oh, really?" Snape said, mildly, eyes narrowing.  
  
"Yes, Professor." Draco said. "He says he remembers her, from my description of her. He told me that her surname is Black. As in Sirius Blacks younger sister."  
  
A murmur rippled through the room. Severus' eyes narrowed even more. "Lucius Malfoy and I were in the same year, as you know Draco." He said, lowering his voice only slightly. "Of course he would remember my wife from our time together in school." He leaned forward, staring straight at Draco Malfoy, "So?"  
  
"So," said Draco, sounding a little less confident. "My father says Amethyst Black was," he paused here, almost uncertain if he wanted to continue. "That she was a Gryffindor, Professor."  
  
Another murmurs, louder this time. Severus didn't even flinch. "And?" he said, softer still, the hint of a threat lingering.  
  
"Gryffindors are scum, sir." Draco stammered.  
  
Severus Snape stood and walked over to Draco. "Is that what you think, Malfoy?" he hissed.  
  
Draco dared a sullen look at his head of house. "Yes, sir. That's what we all think." He said, although only a few murmurs greeted this announcement.  
  
"Is that so?" Severus hissed again. "So you are suggesting, perhaps, that because I am married to a woman who was a Gryffindor, that I am lowering myself to the level of scum?" he asked slowly, taking in everyone in the room and returning his gaze to Draco.  
  
Draco opened his mouth. Then closed it.  
  
Severus leaned in so close to Draco Malfoy they were almost nose-to-nose. "You are treading on very thin ice with me, Malfoy." He said, very calmly. "You, who panted after Hermione Granger, a Mudblood, for seven years, have the nerve to accuse me of marrying a Gryffindor and so someone beneath me." He backed up a bit. "Now, Malfoy, tell me more about my wife?"  
  
"Father didn't tell me more," Draco admitted grudgingly.  
  
Severus straightened up. He was at least a head taller than Draco. He turned his back to Draco and returned to his chair by the fire. He sat down and raised his hand. From the shadows came Amethyst Snape. She took Severus' hand and stood beside him. Without looking at his wife, Severus said, "The members of my house seem to have some questions about you."  
  
Amethyst looked around the room. The Slytherins noticed she did not smile. She did not grin. She looked regal and terrible as she looked over them. "What do the Slytherins want to know about me?" she asked, loudly enough for everyone to hear. "And why do they think it is any of their concern?"  
  
Vincent Crabbe stepped forward, grinning stupidly. "Were you really a Gryffindor? Are you really Sirius Blacks sister?"  
  
Amethyst examined Crabbe closely. "Very good. Why ever did they keep you back?" she replied, sugary sweet and sarcastic.  
  
Draco Malfoy recovered himself. He walked forward, shoving Crabbe backward. "Slytherins and Gryffindors don't get along." He announced. "Everyone knows that."  
  
A slight murmur from the Slytherin House.  
  
Amethyst let go her husbands' hand and walked towards Draco. She reached him, put her hand under his chin and ran a finger along his neck. "You tried to get one Hermione Granger under your spell, did you not, Mister Malfoy?" She said, not lowering her voice. "Perhaps you are jealous because Professor Snape was able to accomplish what you were never man enough to and got his Gryffindor. But, oh, what different Gryffindors are myself and Hermione Granger." And she backed smoothly away, to the howls of Slytherin laughter. Even Severus was grinning. Draco however turned several shades darker in his anger.  
  
As the laughter died away, Amethyst stopped in the middle of the crowd of Slytherins. "I will tell you a bit about my family, which is, apparently all important to you." She glared at Draco and spoke in a loud voice so no one would miss a word. "Unlike Hermione Granger, my brother and I are Pure Blood. As far back as you can go. Our parents were students at this school. Our father was in Gryffindor House. In his day, he was captain of the Quidditch team and a Prefect. Our mother was also a Prefect. Her house however was not Gryffindor. Her house was Slytherin!" and she raised her head in pride. The Slytherins in the room gasped. "My mother died when my brother and I were very young. My father, for whatever reason he had, tried to instill qualities in us that would assure our placement not only in Hogwarts, but in Gryffindor House. The Sorting Hat took its time with me, and I was placed in Gryffindor. I, to this day, believe the Sorting Hat made a mistake. Like my father, I fell in love with a Slytherin. And I married a Slytherin. And, believe me, my Gryffindor brother was none too pleased with that."  
  
Amethyst walked again in front of Draco Malfoy. "You tell your father that at least Severus Snape went for a proper Gryffindor. Who was at least half-Slytherin." She looked him up and down. "And Pure Blood." She added. She then turned, walked back to the chair where Severus was seated. The faced the Slytherins again and asked, "If there is nothing more you wish to know about me," she broke off. Several silence filled minutes later, she bend and kissed her husband passionately for the whole house to see and faded into the darkness again.  
  
Yet another murmur filled the room. Draco Malfoy was standing just as Amethyst Snape had left him, but he was flushed with anger. Severus stood. "Is that all?' He asked the room. When no one answered, he turned and left the room by the door.  
  
  
  
Sirius opened his eyes when he heard the knock. Probably Harry again, he thought. He didn't want to talk to anyone, not even his godson. He knew he was being stubborn. He really didn't need Harry to tell him that. Again.  
  
The knock came again and he groaned and pulled himself up out of his bed. His flat was a mess. He hadn't really cleaned up in a while. He kicked a path to the door and opened it.  
  
He didn't recognize the man standing before him at first. Then it hit him. "Bill Weasley?" he said.  
  
"All right, Sirius?" Bill said, smiling. The men shook hands and Bill walked in. "Well, looks like you could use a house elf, mate?" he commented, looking at the mess.  
  
"They won't take on this challenge." Sirius chuckled. He was suddenly hit with a suspicion. "Who sent you, Bill?" He asked, sighing. "No offence, but I haven't seen you in years and here you are on my doorstep."  
  
"I was triple teamed, mate." He said, laughing. "Between Mum and Ginny and Hermione I was going to come over here and either talk to you or kill you." He pulled out his wand. "Don't worry, Sirius, we'll talk first." He waved his wand and the place started straightening itself out. He walked into the kitchen and cleaned the table with a wave of his wand, opened the large bag he'd brought with him and pulled out two bottles. "Come on and sit down." He said.  
  
Sirius didn't move until a broom swept him out of the way. He walked into the kitchen and stood over Bill. "I really don't want to talk about it, Bill."  
  
Bill poked Sirius in the ribs with his wand and forced him to sit. "If I go back there in under two hours, they'll do unspeakable things to me." He said, soberly. "They are on a mission, Sirius. I am here to talk to you and you will talk to me, because I am not going to face their wrath."  
  
Sirius pouted and drained the bottle he was holding. "Get on with it then."  
  
"Well, then," Bill said, cheerfully, drinking from his own bottle, as Sirius fished into the bag for another. "The women in my family were quite taken by the story that Hermione brought back from your little visit with Remus. They said it was the most horribly romantic story any of them had ever heard, whatever in the bloody hell that is supposed to mean." He took another drink and both men lifted their legs as a mop went to work underneath the table. "They have been saying they had no idea Severus Snape could be so romantic. Can you believe?"  
  
"I have to admit, Sirius." Bill continued. "I can't picture your sister with Severus Snape. Then again, I can't picture Severus Snape with anyone." And he shrugged. "I understand where you're coming from. If Ginny were to take up with that Malfoy kid, I think I'd want to kill him." And here he paused, thinking. "But I would never dream of pulling the stunt you did trying to keep them apart." He said, carefully. "You must have been pretty desperate."  
  
Sirius tossed his now empty bottle across the room; the broom and dustpan quickly swept it up and put it in the waste bin. "I was desperate, Bill." He said, reaching for another bottle. "At the time Voldemort and his Death Eaters were everywhere, it seemed." Bill flinched. "And I just knew Severus was a Death Eater, or would become one." He took another swig. "I was scared to death for my sister, Bill. You remember what it was like. What they did to people. I had nightmares about the Dark Mark appearing over our house." He stopped, shaking.  
  
"In Azkaban, I had plenty of time to think things through. But I couldn't undo anything. And I wound up so caught up in keeping Harry safe and I still didn't trust Snape and his own anger had grown so much since I'd been arrested. By then I really didn't dare tell him the truth. He would have cursed me out of existence." He rambled, but Bill just sat and drank silently, letting him get it out.  
  
"My sister has as much pride as I do and is at least as stubborn." He said, bitterly. "And her temper! She makes me look like I'm in a coma." Bill laughed out loud at this, spraying beer all over the tabletop. A dishrag zoomed over the table and off again.  
  
Sirius heaved a deep sigh, "To tell you the truth, mate." He admitted. "I have had time to think about all that's happened. My sister is -" and here he drained the last of the beer he had and went through two more before he could continue. "Amethyst is in love with Severus Snape. She's gone off and married him and there's not a damn bloody fucking thing I can do about it." He went through another beer. "And I'm not saying that because I'm half-sloshed."  
  
Bill laughed again. "So what are you planning on doing now?" he asked.  
  
Sirius looked at Bill thinking hard. "Well, I suppose I could always send you to talk to my sister, you did such a great job with me." He said, grinning.  
  
"You aren't half-sloshed, you're completely arseholed!" Bill exclaimed, laughing.  
  
Sirius laughed with him. He glanced into the bag Bill had brought. He now noticed it was magically refilling itself. He shook his head and stood. "I'll be right back." And he turned and walked a bit unsteadily out of his kitchen.  
  
Bill took the bag and stood himself. He moved into the sparkling living room. The cleaning supplies had all returned themselves to their places. He sat on the sofa putting the magical bag of booze on the coffee table and reached for another, as Sirius returned, looking awed.  
  
"This place wasn't this clean when I moved into it." he said. "Where did you learn to do that?"  
  
"I'm the oldest of seven children, remember? Bill laughed. "I always hated cleaning and Mum always made me help her. I developed that particular spell by the time I was ten. It might have been overkill for this dinky place, though." He smiled. He handed Sirius another beer. "Have another." He said. "Now you can celebrate your coming to terms."  
  
They drank together. 


	6. Chapter Six: The Kidnapping

The Liber Severi  
Liber I - Severus Snape's True Love  
  
Copyright (c) 2001 by Cassandra Houston  
Illustrations by Gabriel (http://www.angelfire.com/art/angelgabriel/)  
  
  
  
Author's Notes:  
  
Most of the characters within belong to JK Rowling. Amethyst Rayne Black Snape, Lapis Meaker and some others belong to me, Cassandra Houston. I will not accept money for this book, nor any others made with the wonderful characters JK Rowling has created. I am only putting on paper my interpretation and theory of what the Rowling characters may have been like before the Harry Potter series and what they may be like after. I am not trying to insult or steal from Rowling. I am only having fun here.  
  
If you like what you read (and I certainly hope you do), please feel free to forward a copy of this ebook along to friends, family and anyone else who may enjoy its contents.  
  
I must take the time here to thank Gabriel. Gabriel! You are a saint and I am forever in your debt!  
  
I now give you Severus Snape's True Love, the first in the Liber Severi series.  
  
Cassandra Houston  
  
  
Chapter Six: The Kidnapping  
  
  
Draco Malfoy followed Professor A. Snape from a distance, as she walked from the Defense Against The Dark Arts Classroom and headed for the dungeons. He was as silent as he could be. The halls were all decked out for Christmas, but Draco took no notice. She stopped to speak to a student. She spoke and the student nodded, and then scurried in Draco's direction. Before he could move, Colin Creevy ran into him. Colin bounced off of Draco and hit the floor, looking quite fearful as he stared up at Draco.  
  
"Go." Draco hissed, and Colin found his feet and ran.  
  
He almost lost track of her, although he knew where she was going. She headed down the stairs towards the dungeons and Draco followed. Several turns later, she entered a particularly dark passage. He did not have much time. It was now or never. He pointed his wand at her.  
  
"Sopora." He said, quietly.  
  
Amethyst fell to the ground in a deep sleep.  
  
Draco quickly went to Amethysts side and pointed his wand at her again.  
  
"Nectio."  
  
Ropes appeared and tied themselves tightly around Amethyst.  
  
Draco thought he heard a noise. He kept his want pointed at Amethyst. "Properio  
Malfoy Dungeon." He said quickly, in a near whisper.  
  
Amethyst Snape disappeared.  
  
Draco quickly picked up Amethysts briefcase and hid it under his robes. Around the corner came Crabbe. Draco's temper flared.  
  
"You idiot!" he hissed.  
  
Crabbe looked around. "Where is she?" he asked.  
  
"Not here." Malfoy smiled. He gave the briefcase to Crabbe. "Get rid of this." He ordered. Crabbe took the briefcase, put it under his robes and stalked off.  
  
Draco returned to the Slytherin common room and finished his packing. He would just make it to the Hogwarts Express.  
  
  
  
Colin Creevy raced around a corner and bumped smack into Minerva McGonagall.  
  
"Mister Creevy, where is the fire?" Professor McGonagall demanded?  
  
"I'm sorry, Professor, but I have to get Ginny Weasley! The Professors Snape want to see her before she gets on the train." Colin panted.  
  
Professor McGonagall did not move. "Calm down, Creevy before you hurt yourself." She said, looking at Colin's thin chest, which was heaving up and down.  
  
"But I looked everywhere for her. I think she may be in the Library." Squeaked Colin, trying to control his breathing.  
  
A low whistle penetrated the walls of the school. Colin turned white as a sheet. "Oh dear," he said. "I've missed the train." His eyes widened. "I've missed Ginny!" He leaned against a wall. "The Professors Snape are going to kill me!" he wailed.  
  
Professor McGonagall rolled her eyes. "Colin, calm down." She said. She took him by the shoulder. "First things first. We need to tell Professor Dumbledore that you have missed the train." And she steered him in the direction of Dumbledores' office.  
  
Colin quivered when the Gargoyle sprang to life and stepped aside to let them pass. He'd never been to Dumbledores office before, although he was glad he was not going there because he was in trouble. Or was he?  
  
Professor McGonagall led him into the circular chamber and sat him in a chair in front of Dumbledores desk. A door opened and Dumbledore appeared.  
  
"Mister Creevy." Dumbledore said mildly. "Why are you still here?"  
  
Colin was about to explain to Dumbledore about he search for Ginny Weasley when the office door banged open. It was Severus Snape and he had Vincent Crabbe by the back of the neck. He threw him into the chair opposite Colin, who gave a squeak and backed as far into the chair as he could. Crabbe made to get up, but caught the look in Severus' face and plastered himself into the chair.  
  
"Severus!" Professor McGonagall said sharply.  
  
"I caught this fool trying to hide this in the potions classroom" he hissed, tossing a briefcase onto Dumbledores desk.  
  
"Amethyst's" Dumbledore said, barely glancing at it.  
  
"But I just talked to her." Collin surprised himself by saying.  
  
"When?" Three Professors asked in unison.  
  
"Well, it was more like half an hour ago." He said. "She stopped me and told me to get Ginny and tell her to run down to their chambers before she got on the train. That's where I was going before I fell down again."  
  
"Again?" Professor Dumbledore said, raising his eyebrows.  
  
"Well, I ran into Draco Malfoy first." Colin said, turning red.  
  
"Malfoy." Hissed Snape. He took a step towards Crabbe.  
  
"Severus." Dumbledore said, with warning in his voice, because Severus looked murderous.  
  
Dumbledore walked over to Crabbe. "What has Mister Malfoy done to Professor Snape?" He asked, using a tone that left no argument that he would be answered.  
  
Crabbe pouted. "Draco wouldn't tell me." He said. "Just that she wasn't in the corridor anymore. He'd knocked her out or something and tied her up and magicked her someplace."  
  
Dumbledore looked sharply at Severus, who was shaking his head. "She must still be unconscious." He paused a moment, eyes closed. "Her eyes are definitely closed."  
  
"Not blindfolded?" Dumbledore asked.  
  
"No." Severus said, his eyes still closed. "No, she's unconscious or asleep." He opened his eyes. "Damn, I should have seen this coming."  
  
Dumbledore looked at Severus sharply. "Why?"  
  
"There was an, incident, in our common room at the beginning of the year. Amethyst said some things that doubtless made Malfoy angry."  
  
"Angry enough to try and kidnap a teacher?" Professor McGonagall said. "If he did that, he could wind up in Azkaban!"  
  
Colin shuddered. He'd heard of Azkaban. Remembered the Dementors.  
  
"He didn't do it alone, I can assure you." Severus said, scowling. "He's had to have had some help."  
  
"Severus," Professor McGonagall said, eyeing him. "Can you tell where she is?"  
  
"Yes, Minerva, I can" Severus said. "When we were reunited, we performed the Iunctius Charm. We were unwilling to take the chance of being separated again."  
  
"The what?' Colin sputtered. All three professors rounded on him; they'd apparently forgotten he was there.  
  
Professor Dumbledore looked down at Colin for a long time. "The Iunctius Charm joins together two souls." He said. "From now until they're deaths, Amethyst and Severus will be able to locate each other, no matter where they are."  
  
"Why would they do that?" Colin couldn't help but ask. "Don't they trust each other?"  
  
"It is not that, Mister Creevy." Professor Dumbledore said. "It is like Professor Snape has said. They were unwilling to take the chance of being separated again."  
  
Colin nodded, having no idea what that meant but knowing he'd learn no more. But he tried to say one more thing. "That sounds sort of, well, immoral."  
  
Dumbledore sighed. "It is very advanced Dark Magic, Mister Creevy. The only willing participants I have ever heard of to ever perform it are the Professors Snape. You see, few people are willing to give up even a part of their soul to another. It makes them vulnerable. The trust you must have in the person you are joined to. Well, not many people trust that deeply. And it has never been used on a willing participant before. Mostly it was used by Lord Voldemort on those in his inner circle whom he did not trust and wanted to keep an eye on." And here he glanced at Severus. "Some people know how to turn it on and off at will, but not many. And even fewer know how to rid themselves of the Charm."  
  
Colin gaped. He'd heard Severus knew Dark Arts, but never thought he would ever hear any of it was true! The news did nothing to alleviate the terror Severus Snape inspired in Colin.  
  
Dumbledore said, "Well, we had better search the castle and grounds in any event. Severus, if you locate Amethyst before the next train, please let me know."  
  
"Yes, Headmaster."  
  
Dumbledore looked at the two students in his office. "You boys return to your common rooms. We will put you on the next train."  
  
A search of the castle produced nothing. Severus was not seen until it was time to go to Hogsmeade and get the train. He was completely silent during the carriage ride, which he took with Professors Dumbledore, McGonagall and Flitwick.  
  
At the station, the teachers boarded the ten o'clock train, but Dumbledore and Severus lingered. The waited for the train to depart, then disappeared.  
  
  
  
Arthur Weasley pulled into his front yard with a light heart. It was almost Christmas and he was bringing Ginny home for the holidays. As he pulled to a stop in front of the house, he looked at it and smiled. The house had been completely remodeled, thanks to a treasure hoard found in a joint effort between Bill and Charlie. Their usual meager cut had, in this case, was not meager at all. They received half a million Galleons apiece for their find. They had paid for the remodeling of the Weasley home. Molly complained about all the extra rooms that no one was really living in except for the holidays, but Mister Weasley knew she was very pleased.  
  
Ginny hopped out of the car, still chatting animatedly and ran into the house to see her family. Mister Weasley was left to get her trunk. He got out of the car and walked around the car.  
  
"Good Lord." He exclaimed, when Albus Dumbledore and Severus Snape appeared in front of him.  
  
"Halloo, Arthur." Said Dumbledore, grinning at the startled expression on Mister Weasleys face.  
  
"Albus!" He said, shaking a bit. "What in the world are you doing here? Not that I'm not glad to see you, but."  
  
Dumbledores face became deadly serious. "I'm afraid that this isn't a social call, Arthur." He said. "We are looking for Sirius Black."  
  
"Of course," Mister Weasley said. "He arrived this afternoon." And his eyes flicked to Severus. "Is there a problem?"  
  
Severus said nothing, apparently deep in thought somehow. "Please, may we see him?" Dumbledore pressed.  
  
They followed Mister Weasley into the house and joined the people congregated in the Weasley sitting room. They eyes of Mrs. Weasley, Ginny, Bill, Charley, Fred, George, Ron, Hermione, Harry Potter and Sirius Black landed on the three men. Sirius' eyes went from the face of Albus Dumbledore to the face of Severus Snape and he leaped to his feet.  
  
"What's wrong?" He demanded.  
  
"It would appear," Dumbledore said, very carefully. "That Amethyst has been kidnapped."  
  
The rest of the people in the room also came to their feet. Cries of disbelief filled the room. Dumbledore raised his hand and the room fell silent.  
  
"Severus is trying to locate her. Wherever she is, her eyes are closed. He cannot locate her right now." He explained.  
  
Sirius took a great calming breath. "You can locate her, Severus?" he asked, tightly.  
  
"Yes I can." Severus said, equally tense.  
  
Hermione spoke up. "What happened, Severus? How could someone kidnap someone from Hogwarts?"  
  
"Apparently the Malfoys have been developing new spells, that Hogwarts is not protected against." Severus said, barely moving his lips.  
  
"The Malfoys!" Harry exclaimed.  
  
"Yes." Severus said. "Amethyst and Draco had words at the beginning of the year. She humiliated him. Badly. Apparently Draco is seeking some sort of revenge."  
  
"We should go to the Malfoy mansion." Sirius said, sharply.  
  
"Sirius, calm down," Dumbledore said. "We are not sure that Amethyst is even there. We mustn't allow ourselves to become distracted." He walked to face Sirius. "Wait until Severus has located her."  
  
"But how can he locate her?" Ron asked.  
  
"The Iunctius Charm" whispered Hermione.  
  
Sirius looked at Severus, but apparently decided against speaking. His expression went from one of anger to one of worry. "OK, Severus. Find her." He said in clipped tones.  
  
Severus nodded, turned and left the house.  
  
  
  
Sirius found him ten minutes later. Severus was standing with both hands on the Weasleys fence. His head was bent and wind was blowing his hair. When Sirius approached him from the left side, he saw Severus' eyes were closed.  
  
They stood there for another half an hour before Severus spoke. "I am sure this will do nothing to improve our relationship, Black." He said sounding defeated. He had not opened his eyes.  
  
Sirius looked out into the darkness. "Actually, I am seeing a great many things in a new light these days, Severus." He said. "I've come to terms with your marriage to my sister. I am still trying to figure out how to make it up to her." He paused. "And to you."  
  
Severus chuckled. "That must have hurt." He said.  
  
Sirius chuckled also. "Not as badly as it would have just two months ago." He said.  
  
They lapsed into silence again. Ten minutes later Harry, Ron and Hermione joined them. "Maybe you should come inside now, before you freeze." Hermione suggested. She'd approached Severus from the right side, and noted his eyes were closed.  
  
"No." said Severus. "I'll wait here."  
  
Ron cleared his throat. "She's not.." he began, but both Severus and Sirius were shaking their heads.  
  
"He would have felt it immediately if she'd been killed." Sirius said. And together he and Severus said, "This time." Both their voices filled with scorn.  
  
Hermione opened her mouth to speak again, when suddenly Severus stood bold upright. His eyes were still closed, but there was a look of pure hatred in his face. "You son of a bitch." He hissed. He reached under his cloak and into his robes. He brought out his wand and stuck it in his ear, saying "Exaudio."  
  
"What is it?" Harry asked, but a look from Sirius silenced him. Sirius beckoned them around him.  
  
"He can see what she sees now. And hear what she hears." He explained.  
  
Severus let out a volley of swearing that made even Ron turn pink, although that may have been the cold. He then chuckled. He turned and opened his eyes, looking at them all.  
  
"She is with Draco Malfoy in the dungeon of their Manor." He hissed. "Lucius isn't there. Somehow I doubt that he would allow his son to do anything as stupid as this. Draco wants to humiliate her as badly as she humiliated him." Then Severus grinned. "Then he freed her hands."  
  
"The connection is broken?" Sirius said.  
  
"Yes, but that is because he knocked her out when she punched him."  
  
Sirius smiled. "That's Amethyst. Then she's all right, for now."  
  
Severus nodded, but his face was grim. "For now. We will have to get her out of there soon. Draco will want her conscious for what he has planed for her."  
  
"So lets go." Ron blurted. Severus and Sirius stared at him.  
  
"You don't think we would let you go alone, do you?" Hermione asked, her hands on her hips.  
  
"I don't think -" Severus began, but Sirius interrupted.  
  
"Don't waste your time arguing, Severus. It's no use."  
  
"All right, then." He said. "I have a plan." And he began to lay it out for them. Five minutes later they had all disappeared. 


	7. Chapter Seven: Respect

The Liber Severi  
Liber I - Severus Snape's True Love  
  
Copyright (c) 2001 by Cassandra Houston  
Illustrations by Gabriel (http://www.angelfire.com/art/angelgabriel/)  
  
  
  
Author's Notes:  
  
Most of the characters within belong to JK Rowling. Amethyst Rayne Black Snape, Lapis Meaker and some others belong to me, Cassandra Houston. I will not accept money for this book, nor any others made with the wonderful characters JK Rowling has created. I am only putting on paper my interpretation and theory of what the Rowling characters may have been like before the Harry Potter series and what they may be like after. I am not trying to insult or steal from Rowling. I am only having fun here.  
  
If you like what you read (and I certainly hope you do), please feel free to forward a copy of this ebook along to friends, family and anyone else who may enjoy its contents.  
  
I must take the time here to thank Gabriel. Gabriel! You are a saint and I am forever in your debt!  
  
I now give you Severus Snape's True Love, the first in the Liber Severi series.  
  
Cassandra Houston  
  
  
Chapter Seven: Respect  
  
  
  
The pain brought Amethyst fully awake. Her jaw hurt where Draco had hit it. The back of her head was also paining her greatly. "And the little twit has tied my hands again." She thought.  
  
Amethyst took a deep breath and opened her eyes. She was lying on a stone floor. Draco was about six feet from her. He had his back turned, leaning over something. Amethyst noticed the corner of a piece of parchment. She recognised the figures of Crabbe and Goyle and a witch she did not know. She hoped Severus had joined with her by now. She was sure she could handle Draco alone, but she wasn't sure if she could handle four people single handedly. Crabbe and Goyle were idiots, on a good day, but they were as strong as a couple of Hippogriffs. Big, dumb animals were dangerous.  
  
She looked around the room. She appeared to be in some sort of dungeon. The room was octagonal and there was a single door with a small barred window directly in front of her and to her left. She noticed a smallish window high and to her right. Night had fallen. She thought the window was big enough for Draco to squeeze through, but not Crabbe. Which meant she could get through it.  
  
"But what if your father comes home, Draco?" the girl was saying.  
  
"Father is in Germany. He said he's on some sort of business, but I think he ran. He's not here, Pansy, he hasn't been here and he isn't going to be here." Draco said, sounding like he was losing his patience. "She's all ours."  
  
Amethyst cleared her throat. "Oh goody." She said, putting as much sarcasm into her voice as she could muster. "And I suppose you expect me to baby-sit."  
  
Draco turned at the sound of Amethyst's voice. "Well, you're awake." He said, a truly sick looking smile forming on his lips. "I'm so sorry, but I had to tie your hands again."  
  
Amethyst said. "Did your parents have any children that lived, Malfoy?"  
  
Draco walked up to Amethyst and put his finger under her chin. "I thought you would know not to try and humiliate a Malfoy. Obviously you need to be taught."  
  
"And you are going to teach me to respect the Malfoy name?" Amethyst said, unable to suppress a smile.  
  
Draco hauled her to her feet, slapped her and said, "Yes, I am."  
  
He motioned to Crabbe and Goyle, who came forward and held Amethyst by the arms. Draco hit her once in the stomach. Amethyst doubled over, coughing. Amethyst straightened up and strongly resisted the urge to lift her legs and send Draco across the room. Time for that later.  
  
"Hmmmm," Amethyst said. "That wasn't bad, Draco. Actually hurt a bit."  
  
Draco's face twisted in rage. "I'll show you, you bitch." He said. He took out his wand. "Crucio!" he shouted.  
  
Amethyst doubled over again and her legs gave out. She locked her jaws against the intense pain. Draco kept the curse on her for a full three minutes and Amethyst feared for her sanity when Draco lifted it.  
  
She rolled onto her back, panting. She could hear their laughter. She tried desperately to control her breathing, finally succeeding enough to pant, "Coward."  
  
Draco stopped laughing. He hit both Crabbe and Goyle in the arms and they stopped laughing too. Pansy was standing there looking half excited, half horrified. "What did you say?" he almost whispered.  
  
"Only a coward attacks an opponent that can't even use their hands. You hit me with a curse I couldn't even dodge." She said, continuing to pant.  
  
Draco smiled. "You can't possibly be so stupid that you think I will give you your wand back, are you?"  
  
Amethyst stopped rolling and lay flat on her back and stared at the ceiling. She took several deep, calming breaths, bringing her breathing back to normal. "No, Draco, I am not that stupid." She said. "But considering I have been hit by six-year-olds with more strength than you have, I would think you would like to have a go at me." She turned her head and grinned at him. "Although I would hate to have to spank you in front of your little friends."  
  
It would take a far stronger man than Draco Malfoy not to be incensed by the insult and intrigued by the challenge. Draco had no compunctions against beating up on women. He glanced at Pansy and thought about the last time she'd gotten out of line. And Amethyst and Pansy were about the same size.  
  
Draco looked over at Goyle. "Get her up and cut her loose." He said. Goyle gaped at him. Draco turned to Pansy and said. "Here." And handed her his wand. She looked at it a moment before she pocketed it. He turned again at Goyle, who was still gaping at him. "Are you deaf?"  
  
Goyle went to Amethyst and untied her hands and legs. Amethyst knew her braid had come undone from its bun and thought only for a moment that it might put her at a disadvantage. She rubbed her wrists. "Them too, Draco. C'mon, be a man. I don't want to be cursed by cowards as big as yourself." She said, looking right at him.  
  
Draco motioned for Crabbe and Goyle to give their wands to Pansy, which they did reluctantly. He then motioned his three accomplices over to the edges of the room. Amethyst made a very quick mental note where they were.  
  
Draco was now right in her face looking at her with something very nasty in his eyes. "When I'm done with you, you will give me the respect a Malfoy deserves. And whatever else I want." He said so low only she could hear.  
  
He hit Amethyst with an uppercut to the jaw using his closed fist. Amethyst fell to the floor, but recovered her feet quickly to return with a hard punch to his midsection. While Draco was doubled over, she brought her knee to his chin, driving him backwards.  
  
Draco backpedaled five steps and righted himself. He bent over and ran at Amethyst, driving her backwards and into the stone wall. Her head hit solid rock again and she saw stars instead of the three punches to the ribs he gave her. She felt a great pain and thought he must have at least cracked one of them. Draco had her pinned to the wall.  
  
"I like a woman with a little fight in her, Snape." He sneered. "I can see now why your husband fancies you." And he grabbed Amethysts right breast and twisted it painfully. "Nice tits too."  
  
Amethyst took the opportunity Draco presented by pinning her to the wall to bring up both feet and push him halfway across the chamber. She fell on her rear and got up quickly. She ran at Draco and punched him backwards. Again she hit him. And again. Draco hit the table and bent backwards over it. Amethyst leaned over him and hit him a fourth time.  
  
Draco grabbed her by the shoulders and they rolled along the table until they fell to the ground and rolled towards the centre of the room. Amethyst managed to pin Draco to the floor, using her legs to keep him down.  
  
"You like this, Draco?" She hissed, out of breath. "A woman on top? In control of you?' and she hit him as hard as she could manage, twice. Draco was knocked out.  
  
Amethyst was not about to take the time to take a breath and it was a good thing she didn't. Crabbe grabbed her and pulled her off of Draco. Goyle approached her, a shocked expression on his face. "He can't believe Draco is unconscious." She thought to herself.  
  
She braced herself using Crabbe and brought both feet up and into Goyles chest. While he stumbled backwards, she put both feet firmly back on the ground and threw Goyle over her shoulder. At least they were both in front of her now. She hoped that they were not smart enough to attack her as a team.  
  
She backed up quickly. Crabbe was struggling to get to his feet and Goyle was looking like he was quickly getting over his shock. Amethyst bumped into the corner of the table. She hoped against hope and turned the table over, jumping behind it. She stood and watched Goyle coming at her. She backed up a little and her back hit a wall. "Bloody hell." She thought, keeping her eye on Goyle.  
  
Crabbe had made it to his feet and was coming fast behind Goyle. They went to opposite ends of the table and hopped over it. They stood and stared at her with nasty smiles.  
  
"Well, that didn't work." Amethyst thought.  
  
  
  
Severus, Sirius, Ron, Harry and Hermione all appeared in a small wood. "Where are we?" Ron asked, looking around, lost.  
  
Severus looked ahead of him. "The Malfoys" he said, his eyes narrowing "Too many curses on the place, can't just apparate in there. We'll have to work our way in." He closed his eyes. He stood there for a few minutes. "OK, she's in there, all right." He said, frowning. "Crabbe, Goyle and Parkinson are with him. The good news is that Lucius is out of town." He began jogging toward a gate. The rest followed. He paused at the gate. Closed his eyes again. "Someone lead me. She's in their empty dungeon. I remember where that is. We want to go right here and around the corner. Then about thirty feet."  
  
Hermione took Severus' hand and they began walking. Before they could turn the corner, Severus growled. "Son of a bitch! He's hit her with the Cruciatus Curse." Hermione gripped Severus' hand more tightly. They turned the corner and walked about ten feet before Severus grinned an evil grin. The next twenty feet were filled with Severus raising his eyebrows and cheering Amethyst on, although she could not hear him.  
  
"Here?" Hermione asked. Severus opened his eyes and looked around. "Perfect, Hermione as usual." He looked at the wrought iron closely. He looked up at a tree branch hanging about twenty feet over the top of the fence.  
  
Without taking his eyes from the branch he said. "Lucius has some good half-arsed curses on this place."  
  
Sirius eyes followed Severus'. "Over that branch, you think?"  
  
Severus nodded. He looked at Harry, Ron and Hermione. "At least one of you needs to stay here and wait. If we need help, you'll have to go for it."  
  
The trio looked at each other. Hermione raised her hand, as if she were still in school. "I'll stay."  
  
Severus and Sirius nodded. "You two know how to levitate?" Sirius asked, his face becoming grim. "Over that branch." He pointed.  
  
Harry and Ron both nodded. Severus nodded and they all began concentrating on the levitation. One minute later the four of them were on the ground and following Severus across the lawns. He was headed for a smallish window at ground level. It was the only window in the place that was lit.  
  
Ron, who was furthest behind, heard the growl. Five humongous dogs were running at them from both sides. "Look out!" he shouted, while pulling out his wand. He got the one closest to him, while Harry and Sirius got one apiece and Severus got the last two with quick restraining spells. They stood for a moment, watching the dogs. "Wow!" Harry said.  
  
"Wolfhounds." Severus said, and continued. They reached the window and were able to peer inside. Draco was lying on the floor, apparently unconscious. Pansy was in a corner with her hands over her mouth. Crabbe and Goyle were advancing on Amethyst, one on each side of her.  
  
"Adflicto." Sirius shouted, pointing his wand at the window. It exploded. He threw himself through the window, followed by Severus, Ron and Harry.  
  
At the sound of the breaking window, Crabbe and Goyle, distracted turned away from Amethyst. She kicked Goyle in the solar plexus and he doubled over, shocked. Sirius pointed his wand at Crabbe and shouted "Everbero!" Crabbe hit the wall and slid to the floor.  
  
Amethyst leaned against the wall and expelled a breath. "Well, I thought you'd show up sooner or later." She said, smiling. Her hair was coming out of its braid and she was bleeding from the corner of her mouth. She wiped away the blood and climbed over the overturned table and into the waiting arms of her husband. She called out in pain and Severus pulled back. "I think I have a cracked rib." She said.  
  
Severus opened her robes enough to see she had plenty of bruises. He pointed his wand at her and said, "Sanoia" tenderly. Amethyst sighed and smiled as he closed then again.  
  
Pansy remained where she had been throughout the fight. Her hands were still over her mouth. Ron walked over to her and said, "Well, halloo there, Pansy. Long time no see. Still hanging around with that git, I see." He pointed his wand at her said, "Advoco." And four wands flew from Pansy's robes into Ron's hand. "Thank you much, luv." He said, smiling.  
  
Goyle was recovering himself. "Don't be thick." Sirius said, pointing his wand at him. Goyle stood and fumed and that was all.  
  
"All right now!" Amethyst said, grinning and clapping her hands. She looked over at Crabbe and Goyle. "You ladies come over here and stand by your girlfriend." She waved her arm at the fallen Malfoy. "And you," she turned her eyes on Pansy. "You too." And Pansy stalked over and stood near Crabbe and Goyle. Ron handed Amethyst her wand back and Amethyst thanked him.  
  
They put a restraining spell on the four Slytherins and magicked them out the single window. They returned to the gate, where Hermione was wringing her hands. They began levitating their captives over the fence. Malfoy made it over the fence when he suddenly fell twenty feet. Everyone looked at Amethyst who shrugged and said, "Whoops."  
  
Sirius raised his wand, waved it in a circle that encompassed all ten of them and said, "Eo ire itum". They reappeared in the main office of Department of Magical Law Enforcement at the Ministry of Magic Headquarters.  
  
Five wizards were seated at desks around the room. All five looked up when ten people arrived out of thin air. A tall, thick wizard stood. "Can I help you?" He asked.  
  
Sirius spoke. "Lapis Meaker, please," he said, as if just stopping to ask the time.  
  
The wizard looked at them and did not seem impressed. Just then a door along the wall opened and another tall, solidly built man stepped out of his office. He looked in their direction and his eyes landed on Sirius. "Well, I'll be god damned!" he shouted. His accent was definitely strange. American Southern. He walked up to Sirius and the two men shook hands heartily. "What brings you here, and at two o'clock in the morning, no less?"  
  
He seemed to suddenly notice the other nine people. "Well, well, well." He said. He looked them all over, one by one. His eyes rested on Draco Malfoy. "If it isn't Draco Malfoy." He boomed. He scanned them again. "This ought to be good!" and he sat on the top of the desk nearest him. The tall, thick wizard, seeing his boss had everything, if not in hand, at least had it, returned to his desk.  
  
Amethyst launched into her story. Lapis' brown eyes got larger as she progressed and he laughed several times. When she'd finished her story, he waved his wand, breaking the restraining spells on their captives. He stood up, pulled Malfoy into a sitting position with one hand and slapped him smartly with the other.  
  
Draco began to stir. "Wake up, fool!" Lapis yelled at him.  
  
Draco opened his eyes and started. "Wha?" he said stupidly.  
  
"I would like to welcome you to the Department of Magical Law Enforcements main office. My name is Lapis Meaker and I'll be your host for the evening." He said grinning into Malfoys face.  
  
Malfoy began to move and Lapis threw him down and stepped on his chest. "Listen here, boy." He said, looking down at Draco. "Don't play games with me. It ain't healthy." He then got off of Malfoy's chest and conjured chairs for Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle and Parkenson. "Sit down and make yourself comfortable."  
  
They sat, and so did Lapis, in a chair behind the desk. He looked at Amethyst. "Now, ma'am," he said looking at Amethyst. "I need to tell you that this bunch here are facing some very serious charges. You will be required to testify when they go to trial. Are you willing to do that?"  
  
Amethyst said, "Yes."  
  
"All right then." And he pulled a quill out of his pocket and went rifling through a drawer looking for parchment.  
  
"You talk funny." Pansy said, suddenly.  
  
Lapis looked up. "Well, sweetheart, let me tell you." He said, a slow grin spreading across his face. "I've been in London goin on about ten years now. I came here when I was eighteen. Now, I'm originally from a place called Sealy, Texas. That's in the States, now. And, if you don't mind my saying, I think it ain't me, but all y'all who talk funny." And he bent his head over his parchment while Pansy stared and Sirius and Amethyst laughed.  
  
Half an hour later, Amethyst signed her statement. Draco was facing kidnapping charges. Crabbe was facing accessory to kidnap charges. Draco, Crabbe and Goyle were all facing assault charges, and Pansy was looking at a light charge of failing to prevent mayhem.  
  
Amethyst left the building at a quarter to three o'clock in the morning with Severus, Sirius, Ron, Hermione and Harry. They stood in the cold a moment, actually enjoying the cold.  
  
"What a night!" Ron said.  
  
"Yes it was at that." Amethyst said, leaning into Severus. He had his arm around her.  
  
"Well," Hermione said, brightly. "You may as well all come home with us. You've all been invited to spend the holidays, anyway."  
  
"That's right." Snape said, beginning to chuckle. Amethyst was giggling.  
  
"What?" Ron said, looking at them as if they'd gone mad.  
  
"We were going to send word with Ginny." Amethyst said, laughing now. "I sent Colin Creevy to find her. We decided we were going to spend this holiday quietly and alone."  
  
Everyone laughed. When the laughter died down, Sirius spoke.  
  
"I'd like to invite my sister and brother-in-law," and here everyone gaped at Sirius, who stopped and said "What? Severus is my brother-in-law. You all know that." But he looked mischievous and turned a bit pink. "I would like to invite you two to my place for the Holidays. We have a lot to talk about, or I do anyway."  
  
Severus and Amethyst looked at each other for a long moment. Amethyst raised her eyebrows at her husband. He nodded. "OK, Sirius. You're right. Guess it's time to hash this all out once and for all, eh?" The three of them bid the rest goodnight and disappeared.  
  
Hermione looked disappointed, but Harry poked her in the ribs and said. "They might just patch things up, especially after tonight." He said, hopefully.  
  
Hermione sighed. "I suppose your right. They seemed to have developed a lot of respect for each other." She said, looking hopefully at the spot where Amethyst, Severus and Sirius had just been.  
  
"I would love to hear the conversations they'll be having this holiday." Ron said in a wistful sort of a voice. Hermione hit him in the arm.  
  
They disappeared. 


	8. Chapter Eight: Miraculous Happenings

The Liber Severi  
Liber I - Severus Snape's True Love  
  
Copyright (c) 2001 by Cassandra Houston  
Illustrations by Gabriel (http://www.angelfire.com/art/angelgabriel/)  
  
  
  
Author's Notes:  
  
Most of the characters within belong to JK Rowling. Amethyst Rayne Black Snape, Lapis Meaker and some others belong to me, Cassandra Houston. I will not accept money for this book, nor any others made with the wonderful characters JK Rowling has created. I am only putting on paper my interpretation and theory of what the Rowling characters may have been like before the Harry Potter series and what they may be like after. I am not trying to insult or steal from Rowling. I am only having fun here.  
  
If you like what you read (and I certainly hope you do), please feel free to forward a copy of this ebook along to friends, family and anyone else who may enjoy its contents.  
  
I must take the time here to thank Gabriel. Gabriel! You are a saint and I am forever in your debt!  
  
I now give you Severus Snape's True Love, the first in the Liber Severi series.  
  
Cassandra Houston  
  
  
Chapter Eight: Miraculous Happenings  
  
  
They appeared in Sirius' living room. He was grateful that he'd gotten Bill to teach him his Cleaning spell. The place was immaculate.  
  
Amethyst grinned, looking around. "Well." She said. "I guess people really can change."  
  
Sirius looked at her, "And what's that supposed to mean?" he asked in mock indignation.  
  
"Means you managed to find a floor." She said, sniggering. She dodged a playful hit and winced. "I need a hot bath." She said, "I feel like I've been in a fight or something."  
  
"I'll bet," Severus said, grinning. "Where in the world did you learn to fight like that? I've never seen any woman do anything like that before?"  
  
Amethyst grinned. "Well, I picked it up in the States." She said. "Americans don't use magic as much as we do, believe it or not." She said, and laughed at the looks of shock on their faces. "Think about the history and it makes sense. Anyway, they still use magic, but it's different. A lot of the Defense Against The Dark Arts I taught was in the realm of disarming your opponent and beating the bloody hell out of them. I was taught to fight in my first year at Salem by Terry Daley. He grew up in Chicago." She sighed. "He used to say he could feel the anger in me and I may as well use it to my advantage." She shook herself a little. "Where's the bath, Sirius."  
  
He pointed and she left the room, leaving Sirius and Severus standing in the living room, looking a bit foolish.  
  
Sirius cleared his throat. "Sit down, Severus." He eventually said. He went into his kitchen and called over his shoulder, "I could use a bender. You?"  
  
"Yea, definitely." Severus agreed.  
  
Sirius returned with a bucket filled with ice and bottles, which he put on the table. He grabbed one and handed it to Severus and took another for himself. He sat on the opposite end of the sofa from Severus and the two of them drank in silence. A laugh from Sirius made Severus look at him sharply.  
  
"I was just thinking about this bit of skirt I dated about a year ago." He explained. "Actually, it was Lapis who set us up. He makes me look like an innocent little lamb. Anyway, I was so uncomfortable with her. We just sat as far away from each other as we could and looked at each other." He emptied his bottle. "And that's how I'm feeling again."  
  
Severus actually laughed. "Guess we are being a bit tight, aren't we?" And finished his own. Then he opened another and lapsed into silence.  
  
Sirius sighed, "All right then," he said. He took a swig and continued. "We worked well together tonight. Hell, we didn't try to kill each other, anyway. Got to start somewhere, right?"  
  
Severus nodded, a slight smile forming. "I figured you'd try to kill me when you found out Amethyst had come up missing." He said.  
  
Sirius shrugged. "There were a couple of things kept me from doing it. First, you looked to be beating seven shades of shit out of yourself just fine." He grinned. "Second, I talked to an old friend of mine, Bill Weasley. He let me work it all out in my head. I finally realised that my sister loves you and has since she was thirteen years old. She didn't care if you were a Death Eater. She didn't care if being with you could have gotten her killed. She just wanted to be with you. Took me over twenty years to get my head out of my arse long enough to realise it had nothing to do with me. I was blinded by my hatred of you, which was compounded by the fact that you were with my sister. And I went off half-arsed and destroyed my relationship with her." He took another drink. "I never have been and probably never will be in love. I've banged a fair few women but it didn't have any meaning, if you know what I mean. It was just, well, sex." He looked into his bottle before draining it. "I had to admit that you had goolies. I managed to keep guys away from my sister from her first day at Hogwarts until she met you. And considering the whole Gryffindor-Slytherin rivalry thing, the fact that she wound up with you took me by surprise, all right. I thought the Fates were being particularly cruel. I didn't like you. I hated you. I don't think I figured out that you were not the slime ball I had you pegged for until, well, until tonight."  
  
Severus nodded thoughtfully. He was keeping up with Sirius' drinking. He replaced his empty bottle with a full one, opened it and tapped it with his long fingers. "I remember the day I met Amethyst." He began slowly. "Dumbledore told me I was to tutor some third year and I was not real pleased with the idea. Somehow I thought I had better things to do. When I saw she was your sister, I thought to myself 'Great. I'm dead when he finds out.' I didn't like you; I didn't like your group of friends. I'll admit, I was a bit jealous. I'm no athlete, and the girls flocked around you lot like crazy. I was a scholar and no sex symbol." He drank long from the bottle. "Amethyst was scared to death of me, I think, but I don't think it was anything to how scared I was of her. She always said she wasn't beautiful, but I don't think I've ever seen anyone as beautiful in my life, and I am not sixteen anymore. She was, at the time, however, terrible at potions." They both smiled at this. "I don't think that girl could have made a cup of tea without fucking it up."  
  
Sirius laughed out loud at this, "She couldn't. Trust me." And they both laughed. The alcohol was doing its job.  
  
When the laughter died down, Severus continued. "I gave up on potions making with her and moved into theory when she damn near blew us up. We had plenty of talks about potions and eventually everything else under the sun. I was falling for her. And in most ways that meant I was falling for Sirius Black's sister and that was not a good thing. But I just couldn't stop it. Believe me, I tried." He killed the bottle and went for another. "By the time that year ended, there wasn't much I could do except hope she'd get over this crush on me over the summer. But she sent me an owl and we met and I just couldn't go back. I showed her the Dark Mark when I first got it. We'd promised to be honest, but I was scared to death. I knew how you and your lot felt about Death Eaters in general and me in particular. I couldn't believe it when she told me she loved me whether I was a Death Eater or not." He finished the bottle and reached automatically for another. He drained it and spoke again. "I offered to modify her memory, even. She told me she'd rather I killed her than take her memory of me." He looked at the expression on Sirius' face. "I don't think I could have made myself do it, even though I did know how." He said simply. "I thought we couldn't hate each other more, then you came to me telling me she was dead. My shock was the only thing that saved your life that day." He said, matter-of-factly. "Then you went to Azkaban and I spent the next twelve years hating you. By the time we met in the Shrieking Shack I had no trouble at all with the idea of turning you over to the Dementors. None whatsoever. All because you would even suggest I had something to do with Amethysts death. Every time I saw you after that, I thought about Amethyst and I thought you just might have been right. That my being a Death Eater killed her." And he looked towards the bath. "Lupin almost killed me with the news she was still alive." He said. He took another bottle and silence reigned again.  
  
Sirius broke it. "I still don't know what came over me. Barking mad I was. Voldemort was everywhere and I was terrified that something horrible would happen to Amethyst." He said, weakly. "I can't say I'm sorry enough. I can never make up for what I did to you two."  
  
Severus began to speak, but stopped himself, took a drink, drew a deep breath and tried again. "Why don't we just try and put it behind us as best we can." He said. "We can chalk up all the unforgivable things we've done each other to being stupid and young. We're older now. If nothing else we need to at least pretend to get along."  
  
Sirius nodded. "We will never be mates, I don't think." He said slowly.  
  
Severus smiled. "Never say never, mate." He said. "I thought I would never fall for a Gryffindor."  
  
They laughed together again. "Ohhhhhh, what wonderful opportunity for blackmail", brought them back to reality. Amethyst was out of the bath. She'd tended her wounds and washed and dried her hair. She'd even repaired and cleaned her robes. "Sirius Black and Severus Snape drinking and laughing together."  
  
Severus grinned at her. "And just who do you think would believe you?"  
  
Amethyst bit her lip. "Point made." She said. She walked over to the couch and lay with her head in Severus' lap and her bare feet in Sirius' lap. "I see you haven't killed each other." She yawned.  
  
"We have reached a mutual understanding, love." Severus said, stroking her head.  
  
"Yup." Sirius said. "We mutually understand that we both love you."  
  
Amethyst, who'd been falling asleep, jerked awake. "I'm sorry. I must have been dreaming. I thought you said something about mutually understanding that you both love me." She sat up. "Severus Snape and Sirius Black do not mutually anything!"  
  
"Well we do now." Sirius said. "If we could work together tonight as well as we did, I'm sure we can do it again, someday."  
  
Sirius suddenly grabbed Amethysts bare foot and began tickling the bottom of it. When she tried to get away, Severus held her down. "Stop! Stop!" Amethyst screamed, laughing harder by the minute.  
  
"Not until we have your word that no one will ever know Severus and I are beginning to get along." Sirius said, smiling.  
  
"Severus!" Amethyst screamed.  
  
"I am in complete agreement with Sirius, love." He said, looking down at her with a grin. "We have reputations to protect, you know."  
  
They tickled her until she agreed and stopped immediately. She jumped up and turned to face the two men on the sofa. She was smiling, but trying to look stern. "I think I liked you two better what you each wanted the other dead!" She huffed. She turned and stomped into the kitchen where they heard her banging around. They looked at each other.  
  
"You think she's looking for a knife?" Severus said, still grinning.  
  
"You know her." Sirius said.  
  
"Probably." They said together and they both laughed.  
  
Amethyst reappeared, carrying three steaming goblets. She carefully put them on the table in front of them. They both eyed it, still trying to control their laughter. Sirius was on his knees and Severus was full length on the couch. Severus sat up and Sirius stood. "What is it?" they asked together, which sent them off again into gales of laughter.  
  
"You've both gone mad." Amethyst said, as if stating a simple fact. "It is a combination Wakefulness draft and Sobriety potion. You two need to wake up and sober up if I'm going to take my two favourite men to breakfast." She raised her glass. "To miraculous happenings," she said, still eyeing them as if they were mad.  
  
Sirius and Severus looked at each other a moment, then each reached for a glass.  
  
"To miraculous happenings" they said, together. 


	9. Chapter Nine: Out With the Old and In Wi...

The Liber Severi  
Liber I - Severus Snape's True Love  
  
Copyright (c) 2001 by Cassandra Houston  
Illustrations by Gabriel (http://www.angelfire.com/art/angelgabriel/)  
  
  
  
Author's Notes:  
  
Most of the characters within belong to JK Rowling. Amethyst Rayne Black Snape, Lapis Meaker and some others belong to me, Cassandra Houston. I will not accept money for this book, nor any others made with the wonderful characters JK Rowling has created. I am only putting on paper my interpretation and theory of what the Rowling characters may have been like before the Harry Potter series and what they may be like after. I am not trying to insult or steal from Rowling. I am only having fun here.  
  
If you like what you read (and I certainly hope you do), please feel free to forward a copy of this ebook along to friends, family and anyone else who may enjoy its contents.  
  
I must take the time here to thank Gabriel. Gabriel! You are a saint and I am forever in your debt!  
  
I now give you Severus Snape's True Love, the first in the Liber Severi series.  
  
Cassandra Houston  
  
  
Chapter Nine: Out With the Old and In With the New  
  
  
Albus Dumbledore sat at his desk contemplating the two pieces of parchment on his desk. He turned and looked out of his window on the beautiful summer day outside. He could see a great many students out by the lake, enjoying the day.  
  
He'd known this day would come. He'd hoped to be able to avoid it for another year or two, but even he had to admit that it was time.  
  
He turned at a knock on his door.  
  
"Enter." He said, softly.  
  
The door opened and Severus Snape walked in.  
  
"Please, sit down." Dumbledore said.  
  
Severus sat in front of Dumbledore and the two contemplated each other for a long time.  
  
"Why, Severus?" Dumbledore said.  
  
"Headmaster," Severus began, but Dumbledore raised his hand and stopped him.  
  
Severus nodded. "Very well." He said. "Albus."  
  
"I thank you." Dumbledore said, his eyes twinkling.  
  
"The time has come, Albus." Severus began again. "I have been here for many years now. You know my history, Albus."  
  
"I do at that."  
  
"Then perhaps you can understand why I must do this. I have nineteen years to make up. And that will just not be possible here."  
  
Dumbledore considered Severus for a very long time. "I have watched you, Severus, for almost thirty years now. I watched you grow during your time as student here. I have been privy to your joys and your sorrows. And you have had too many sorrows, Severus. Far more than your share."  
  
"I told Amethyst the day we met that you must have known what you were doing when you assigned me as her tutor." Severus said, remembering.  
  
"I was saving you." Dumbledore said, mildly.  
  
"Yes," Severus nodded. "But things did not go exactly as planned, did they?"  
  
"No they did not." Dumbledore admitted, not in the least surprised by the insight. "I had not planned on the level of hatred that Sirius Black was capable of. But it was you who had the strength to remain true to your heart. Your strength of character surprised me time and time again. Amethysts' too, when it comes to it."  
  
Severus nodded again. "Thank you headmaster, but it is not all my doing."  
  
"No, it is not." Dumbledore conceded. "I cannot say my attempts at a matchmaker were a complete failure, but I think I will keep my day job." He stood and offered his hand to Severus Snape. The men shook as he said:  
  
"Resignations accepted."  
  
  
  
"Will you miss it, Severus?" Amethyst asked her husband as they lay together in their new home.  
  
"No." Severus answered. "I remained a teacher at Hogwarts to be close to the memory of you." He pulled her closer and kissed her gently. "That is no longer necessary."  
  
Severus had his family home moved to their secret clearing. The house, which had always seemed so dark to Severus all of his life seemed light in this new location. Sentimentality was not really his strong suit, he thought, but he liked to think that the love in the house is what lit it.  
  
They lingered in bed longer than usual that morning, and were almost late for their meeting with Sirius. Severus was not in the least pleased at having to wear Muggle clothes, but both Amethyst and Sirius insisted that it was a must. They met in front of an office building on the corner of the very same block where the Leaky Caldron was located and met with the owner of the building. He was quite impressed with the trio and, with the help of a charm or two tossed out at the right moments, bought the building for five hundred pounds.  
  
After the transaction, which was completed in record time (they had the deed to the place in fifteen minutes) they adjourned to the Leaky Caldron then Diagon Alley, where they met Harry, Ron and Hermione for lunch. They met in front of Gringotts and Amethyst ran into the bank to exchange the remainder of their money from Pounds back to Galleons.  
  
Harry, Ron and Hermione stared at Severus, Sirius and Amethyst dressed in designer Muggle business suits.  
  
Sirius leaned over and closed Harry's jaw for him. "That's my sister you're staring at, Harry. She's married, remember? And we all know I don't deal well with men after my sister." and Harry turned red.  
  
"Is that Armani?" Hermione breathed.  
  
"Definitely." Sirius said. "We needed to dress to impress." They began to walk towards the Apothacoffee, a new coffee shop that'd opened in the last year.  
  
They were impressive. They were drawing stares from the wizards on the street. Severus scowled at all the attention, loosening his tie, Sirius flirted with every attractive woman to pass them by and Amethyst just grinned, watching Sirius and Severus being watched.  
  
Hermione got Amethysts attention. "What have you been up to dressed like Muggle business people?"  
  
"We just bought a building." Amethyst explained. "We're going into business part time, you see."  
  
"Business?" Ron said. "What business?"  
  
They'd arrived at the Apothacoffee. They sat and ordered. Hermione ordered two meals, which caused Harry, Sirius and Severus to look at her in astonishment. "What?" She said, handing the waiter the menu and staring back. She'd turned pink.  
  
"Hungry Hermione?" Harry asked.  
  
Amethyst looked at Hermione carefully and began smiling and nodding.  
  
"What?" Harry asked again, beginning to sound frustrated.  
  
Ron turned as red as his hair. "Well, Hermione is eating for two these days." He said, rather quietly.  
  
Congratulations came at Ron and Hermione from all around the table. "Why didn't you tell me?" Harry demanded to know. "I'm supposed to be your best friend."  
  
Hermione stayed pink. "I would have, eventually."  
  
Amethyst kicked off her high-heeled shoes. "Those things hurt." She sighed. She looked at Hermione, "You will be a wonderful mother, I don't doubt."  
  
Their drinks came. Everyone had tea except Amethyst, who'd ordered coffee.  
  
"How can you drink that stuff?" Ron asked, almost desperate to change the subject.  
  
"You get used to it, Ron, when you're in America a long time. They have forgotten their British roots. I couldn't find a decent cup of tea anywhere in the eighteen years I was over there." She said, smiling. "Every once in a while, I just get a feeling for one."  
  
Sirius looked at her sharply. "Cravings?"  
  
Amethyst rolled her eyes at him. "Give me a break, Sirius. Hermione is the only pregnant one around here, unless you've managed to bang up one of your little floozies."  
  
Sirius threw up his hands, defensively, "No way! Not me!"  
  
But Hermione was looking at Amethyst. "Why don't you have a baby?"  
  
"Hermione!" Ron almost shouted. But she hushed him.  
  
"I know we've been used to the horrible Snape, but now that we know the truth, I can't see why they wouldn't want children. I think it would be wonderful!"  
  
Amethyst was mumbling something about hormones, pregnant women and romantic hallucinations.  
  
Snape raised his eyebrows at Hermione. "I'm almost forty years old, you know."  
  
Hermione waved the sentence away with her hand. "Age has nothing to do with it." she sniffed. "I assumed that the two of you quit teaching to settle down and finally have a family."  
  
"Hermione!" Sirius said, irritably.  
  
Fortunately their lunch arrived at that moment and the conversation switched to the quality of the food.  
  
After the meal, Hermione asked Amethyst if she would like to go shopping. It was obvious that she wanted to get the woman alone to talk. The men agreed to meet them at the Leaky Caldron for dinner and the women left the Apothacoffee.  
  
Ron was shaking his head. "Women. I'll bet she's going to find a bookstore and buy more books on pregnancy."  
  
The other men laughed at him. "I don't think she'll really learn much about pregnancy out of a book." Harry said, thoughtfully.  
  
"Oh, you know her. She'll read all about it and expect hers to go right along with the book." Ron laughed. He sobered and looked at Severus. "I'm sorry about that stuff about you and Amethyst having a baby. Hermione would love nothing more than to go through this with someone besides my mother and my sister. There aren't any other women in my family. All my brothers are players."  
  
Severus grinned. "We haven't discussed having children in about nineteen years." He said. "The last time we talked about it at all was, well," he looked at Harry "It was when you were about a year old. She took one look at you and wanted one of her own." His face turned dark for a fraction of a second. "It just never happened."  
  
Harry blushed. "Well, why don't you?" he said. "You're wizards. Your still young for wizards."  
  
Sirius sighed. "I still don't like thinking about it, but I suppose I would like to be an uncle someday."  
  
Severus grin turned slightly evil. "Then don't think about it and we won't invite you to watch, all right?" he said, silkily.  
  
Ron and Harry almost fell out of their chairs with laughing at the look on Sirius' face.  
  
  
  
"Hermione, how many books on pregnancy do you need?" Amethyst asked, marveling at the tottering tower of books she was speaking to.  
  
"I want to read up on it." Hermione said, breathlessly. The books were very heavy. She dropped them on a table and paid for them. She had to use a shrinking spell before she could get the books into the bag she'd brought with her.  
  
The two spent the afternoon looking at everything and nothing. Amethyst listened quietly as Hermione rambled about her pregnancy. She was terrified, but didn't feel comfortable about talking with her mother and sister in law. Since they and Amethyst were the only women Hermione really knew, Amethyst was the one she turned to.  
  
"You are such a great listener," Hermione said, as they entered Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour. Amethyst ordered nothing, but watched as Hermione ate the largest sundae she had ever seen.  
  
"What you call listening others would call being completely unsupportive." Amethyst said, a very slight grin on her face.  
  
"Oh no!" Hermione said, between huge spoonfuls of sundae. "You are listening aren't you?"  
  
"Yes, but I can't offer you any advice. I don't know anything about pregnancy and babies and all. I honestly have no idea why you choose me to talk to of all people." Amethyst admitted.  
  
"Well, because I like you. I consider you a friend, or almost anyway. You aren't my mother or mother-in-law, you aren't my sister-in-law." Hermione lowered her spoon. She looked thoughtfully into the half eaten sundae and said quietly. "Your probably my closest female friend that isn't related to me."  
  
Amethyst raised her eyebrows. "You may not believe this, Hermione, but I don't have a lot of friends either."  
  
Hermione nodded. "But you could have been very popular if Sirius hadn't tried to smoother you when you were at school." She said. "Sirius said so himself."  
  
"I suppose that's part of it. I did a lot of hiding. Spent most of my life doing it, if it comes to it." Amethyst said.  
  
"That's why you and Profess, I mean Severus are such a perfect match. You're like one in the same person." Hermione said, sighing and getting back to demolishing her sundae.  
  
Amethyst nodded and thought what she could possibly say next. Casual conversation was still a new concept for her. But she didn't have to ponder long.  
  
"Not like Ron and I." Hermione was saying. "We argue all the time. Have since we met, seems like."  
  
Amethyst, who had never seen Ron and Hermione having an argument, raised her eyebrows again. "You seem to get along all right." She said.  
  
"Oh, things have been pretty quiet lately." Hermione finished her sundae. "But we can really get bad."  
  
"It is interesting." Amethyst said, thoughtfully. "The six of us hanging around."  
  
Hermione was following her thoughts. "Yes." She said. "Harry is so famous he can barely leave the house. Sirius is a stud, and he won't settle down. Plus he's trying to live down Azkaban, still. You and Severus are so very sober and serious most of the time. Severus will always be suspected as a Death Eater. And Ron and I have always been losers." She sighed.  
  
They left and headed in the direction of the Leaky Caldron. "Your saying that we all have very legitimate reasons for never having made friends, or that when we do they are few and far between." Amethyst said as they walked.  
  
Hermione bit her lip. "Sounds awful, doesn't it?"  
  
Amethyst half-smiled. "The truth often does. You are right, of course. At least about Sirius, Severus and I. None of us, especially Severus and I, trust easily or often. We may not be evil, or anything, but we definitely aren't nice."  
  
Hermione sighed and looked at her watch. "We're late. They'll be wondering after us."  
  
Amethyst shrugged. "They won't worry about us. And Severus can always find us if it means that much to them."  
  
Hermione stopped and looked Amethyst. "Why did you ever let him talk you into performing the Iunctius Charm?" she asked. "Agreeing to let him spy on you whenever he wants! It's terrible." She was looking angry.  
  
Amethyst looked at Hermione in amazement. Her voice was only slightly chilled when she spoke. "The decision to perform the Iunctius Charm was mutual, let's start there, shall we? You seem to forget that we'd been, basically, forcibly separated. We also thought, at the time, that my brother might just try to do the same thing again. The original idea, however, was mine, not Severus'. He said he didn't want people to think he didn't trust me or something. Go figure."  
  
Hermione turned red. "I'm sorry," she said. "I'm afraid I jumped to conclusions. Forgive me?"  
  
Amethyst gave Hermione a smile. "Nothing to forgive. But you know why it is so frowned upon among wizards now. It is not illegal. It is just something many wizards consider themselves too moral to use. It's highly unethical, as you have pointed out, but ethics are not something Severus and I allow to get in the way of things we want." She chuckled.  
  
Hermione sighed and they continued their walk. "You know. Severus has turned out to be nothing like I thought he was." She said. "I think you two ought to have children."  
  
Amethyst laughed out loud. "Here we go!"  
  
"Well, it's true." Hermione pressed, grinning a bit herself. "Who knows how many children you two would have had if Sirius, I mean if you had gotten married when you'd wanted to in the first place."  
  
Amethyst saw the Leaky Caldron ahead. Harry, Ron, Severus and Severus were standing and talking in front of it. "You are a hopeless romantic, Hermione." She said. "I do not ever hope to understand hopeless romantics." She laughed again. "I am a skeptic and a realist. I am not nice. I am cunning and crafty. So is Severus. What kind of parents would we be, really?" She held up her hand as Hermione opened her mouth. "Drop it Hermione. Severus and I don't know what to do about the subject. We've never talked about it and it just hasn't come up before today. I am sure it will come up now. And I don't know whether to thank you for it or curse you for it."  
  
Hermione bit back her words as they came within hearing distance of the men. She kissed Ron who saw the bag. "Books." He said. "Figgers that's what took you so long. Hermione, we're going to have to have a house built, just for the books!"  
  
Hermione said nothing, but looked over at Amethyst and Severus. As usual, the only signs that they knew each other was how close together they were standing. Neither of them was much for public displays of affection. The romantic in her was severely let down.  
  
"We were gabbing, actually." And she looked over at Amethyst, who only nodded.  
  
"Dinner then?" Ron said.  
  
"I can't." Sirius said with a smile. "I forgot, I have a date." He said. "But why don't you all come over to my sisters house on Saturday. We never did get to tell you about out new business."  
  
"We haven't seen the new place." Hermione said, clapping her hands. "I can hardly wait."  
  
Severus and Amethyst were both looking shocked. "What new house?" Severus said, taken aback. "Same house. Different location is all."  
  
But Amethyst said. "Well, that's fine and mucky of you to invite people over to a house that isn't even yours, Sirius Black!" and she hit him in the arm, laughing.  
  
"You two need to lighten up and socialize." Sirius said. He straightened his tie in the window. "Now I'm off. Serenia loves to see me in Muggle clothes." And he disappeared with a pop.  
  
"See you Saturday, then?" Harry asked with a smile.  
  
"Yes, yes. Fine." Amethyst said, smiling faintly. "I reckon he's right. Saturday, then." 


	10. Chapter Ten: Saturday

The Liber Severi  
Liber I - Severus Snape's True Love  
  
Copyright (c) 2001 by Cassandra Houston  
Illustrations by Gabriel (http://www.angelfire.com/art/angelgabriel/)  
  
  
  
Author's Notes:  
  
Most of the characters within belong to JK Rowling. Amethyst Rayne Black Snape, Lapis Meaker and some others belong to me, Cassandra Houston. I will not accept money for this book, nor any others made with the wonderful characters JK Rowling has created. I am only putting on paper my interpretation and theory of what the Rowling characters may have been like before the Harry Potter series and what they may be like after. I am not trying to insult or steal from Rowling. I am only having fun here.  
  
If you like what you read (and I certainly hope you do), please feel free to forward a copy of this ebook along to friends, family and anyone else who may enjoy its contents.  
  
I must take the time here to thank Gabriel. Gabriel! You are a saint and I am forever in your debt!  
  
I now give you Severus Snape's True Love, the first in the Liber Severi series.  
  
Cassandra Houston  
  
  
Chapter Ten: Saturday  
  
  
Saturday morning dawned bright. Amethyst, however, woke up dark. She opened her eyes and drew a deep breath, smelling her husbands' hair as he slept. She slowly untangled herself from Severus, noting as she did that her muscles were very stiff. "We're going to really hurt each other someday." She thought with a grin. She wouldn't have it any other way.  
  
She showered and washed her hair (a twice a month ritual, as her was just too long to be washing every day, magic or no magic). She wrapped herself in a towel and padded, dripping, back into the bedroom, where she found her wand. She walked back into the bathroom, turned, pointed her wand at the wet footprints and muttered, "Sicco". The puddles disappeared. She then put the tip of her wand in her sopping wet hair and murmured, "Exaresco et evolvo" Her hair instantly became dry as a bone and tangle-free from her crown to her feet.  
  
Returning to the bedroom, she saw for a fraction of a second the flutter of wings. Naked, she walked up a floor to the nidus, where she saw the family owls, Acerbus and Atrox glaring at a tiny little scrap of an owl with a note tied to it's leg. Acerbus and Atrox were watching it with great interest as it soared around the small room. Atrox snatched the tiny owl out of the air without leaving her perch, the tiny owl squeaked like a mouse.  
  
"Leave it." Amethyst commanded and Atrox dropped the small owl. Amethyst walked over to it and picked it up. "Hello little winged mouse." She said, examining it. "Give me your charge and leave, before you become dinner." And she took the note from the owl and let it go. It shot out of the open nidus window like it had been shot out of a cannon.  
  
Chuckling, Amethyst opened the note, which said:  
  
  
Hello,  
  
We will be arriving at twelve o'clock. I just wanted to let you know, since neither Ron nor I can remember if it was eleven or one, so we chose something in the middle. haveto go goingtobe sick  
  
Mione  
  
Amethyst folded the note and carried it back down to her bedroom. She laid the note on the bedside cabinet and turned her head slightly to the right. She listened to the sounds of Severus in the shower a moment and left the room. She crossed the room and opened a large door.  
  
This room was full of bottles, caldrons, books and things floating in jars. It was where Severus made the potions they used around the home. She crossed the room slowly and paused in front of a wall of shelved filled with bottle after bottle of potions and powders. She found the bottle she was looking for and began to reach for it when she was grabbed from behind.  
  
"Sore?" the question was purred in her ear.  
  
Amethyst smiled. She could feel Severus behind her. "Yes. I feel like I was rolling around on roof last night."  
  
"You were." He said and squeezed her. He put his chin on her shoulder. "Looks like we're out." He said, his eyes landing on the bottle Amethyst was going to grab. "I'll have to whip up some more."  
  
He released her and she turned and watched him move to the worktable and begin preparing some more of the muscle relaxation powders. She watched from the end of the long table as his arm worked the pestle. He tossed in various dried leaves and ground them to a fine powder. He stopped and looked at her. He too was naked. He moved to her and put his arms around her again. He kissed her deeply.  
  
"Don't tease." She breathed.  
  
He sighed and smiled. "Very well." He growled. "I can't concentrate for this damnable lunch anyway."  
  
But he didn't let her go. "Sissy." He raised his voice.  
  
A squeaky voice answered almost at once. "Yes, Master Severus."  
  
"Please make sure that powder finds it's way into the this mornings tea."  
  
"Yes, Master Severus." Sissy squeaked.  
  
Severus kissed his wife again. "Breakfast?" he suggested.  
  
Amethyst smiled, and then frowned. "You mean downstairs?"  
  
Severus laughed and shook his head. "You are something else." He said, looking deep into her eyes.  
  
"No." she corrected. "I am yours."  
  
They dressed and went down to breakfast. Sissy had, as instructed, divided the powder and added it to their morning tea. They weren't large eaters, and breakfast was soon over. They talked about the upcoming day, as they did every morning, but today was different.  
  
"There are about a million Weasleys living in that house," Severus growled good-naturedly. "I notice Hermione didn't mention if only she and Ron were joining us or the entire Weasley family."  
  
"They'll be at least six." She said. "We'll manage any more, fear not, my love."  
  
Severus returned to his workshop while Amethyst went into the bedroom. She took a large platinum brush from a dresser and began brushing her long hair. While she, of course, knew how to prepare her hair using magic, she often brushed her hair with this brush, the only gift from Severus that she'd been able to think to pack when she was rushed from the states. She brushed her hair daily the entire time she was in the United States, save for times she was in an absolute rush and just could not afford the time.  
  
She finished brushing and pulled out her wand. She bent her head back and looked at the stone ceiling. Putting her wand in her hair she muttered "Vieda" and her hair magically braided itself into its usual long and thick braid.  
  
Downstairs an ancient clock struck ten o'clock. She went down to the kitchen and picked a basket. She left the house and walked through the expanse of meadow and into the woods. She followed a narrow path until she came to another clearing. This was a clearing Severus has created when the house had been moved here. There was half an acre of open garden surrounded by four massive greenhouses. She entered the garden and walked through, picking vegetables for the lunch. She filled her basket and returned to the kitchen, delivered the basket to Sissy and moved into the front of the house.  
  
As the clock eleven o'clock there was a knock at the door. Amethyst was standing right there and opened it. Sirius and Harry stood before her, beaming.  
  
She let her brother in and hugged both men when there was a loud tutting from around her knees.  
  
"Mistress Amethyst ought not to be opening doors like a common servant! That is Sissy's job!" It was Sissy, brandishing a finger at Amethyst.  
  
Amethyst raised her eyes towards the heavens and groaned, "I'm sorry, Sissy. I keep forgetting." She said, trying not to smile. "Next time you can get it, unless you would like me to throw my brother and his friend out into the yard and make them knock again."  
  
Sirius laughed and Harry couldn't help but grin. He also couldn't help but notice that this particular house elf was not, as was usual for house elves, wearing a towel or pillowcase or something else odd. Sissy was dressed in a long black skirt and a charcoal gray blouse. Her hair was done in a simple ponytail in the back of her head tied with a pin that looked to be platinum. Her large ears stuck up like antennae.  
  
Sissy tutted again. "You remember, Mistress Amethyst." She scolded before stomping back to the kitchens.  
  
"She always this miffed at you?" Sirius said, smiling broadly.  
  
"Only when I forget my place." Amethyst said.  
  
"Where's that husband of yours?" Sirius said, looking into the sitting room.  
  
"In his workroom." Amethyst said, heading up the front stairs.  
  
"This is some place you got here." Sirius said, looking as they walked. The Snape house was just the side of a mansion. As it was it had six bedrooms all with private baths upstairs and two bathrooms in addition to an additional guestroom downstairs. There was a dungeon deep under the house, which had twice the floor space of the house itself and an attic with almost the same amount of floor space as the house. There was also the nidus, where the family owls lived.  
  
They found Severus tidying up the workroom, which covered half the length of the second floor. He turned at Amethyst's knock.  
  
"Well, if this doesn't make my day then nothing will," Severus growled, seeing who it was. Harry began to shrink away. Severus' moods were infamous.  
  
"He's kidding, Harry." Sirius said.  
  
"No I'm not." Said Severus.  
  
"Yes you are," said Sirius, taking a step forward.  
  
"No, I'm not." Said Severus, taking a step forward himself.  
  
The two kept this up until they were about a foot away from each other. Harry was beginning to get extremely anxious.  
  
They shook hands, warmly and Harry almost fell with the relief. Apparently Severus and Sirius were slowly developing some sort of relationship, albeit a very odd one.  
  
They faintly heard a knocking at the door. Severus took a step forward, but Amethyst grabbed his shoulder. "Don't. Sissy is on the rampage."  
  
Severus shook his head. A minute later the little house elf appeared in front of the four of them. "The Weasleys are here Master and Mistress." She announced, very formally.  
  
Amethyst rolled her eyes, but Severus played along. "Thank you, Sissy." He said solemnly. "I will assume you have shown them to the sitting room."  
  
"Yes, Master Severus." Sissy said, looking as if she would tell Severus off for even suggesting she would leave them standing in the hall.  
  
"You may go then Sissy." Severus said. "I will call you if I need you." And she disappeared before he'd finished the sentence.  
  
In their sitting room, they found five Weasleys. Arthur, Molly, Bill, Ron and Hermione. Hermione looked disappointed and confused. "Is there a problem?" Severus asked, when he got around to greeting her.  
  
Hermione bit her lip. Ron jumped in. "Hermione didn't know you had a house elf."  
  
Severus smiled his familiar cold smile. "Sissy has served my family for the better part of two hundred years."  
  
Hermione couldn't help herself. "That's horrible!" she snapped.  
  
Amethyst stepped forward. "Hermione, you need to learn to control your impulses." She said, her voice ice.  
  
"Sissy!" Severus called, impatiently, his eyes not leaving Hermione.  
  
Sissy appeared in less than five seconds.  
  
"Please explain your circumstances to Mrs. Weasley." Severus ordered.  
  
Sissy looked like Severus had asked her to stab Mrs. Weasley. "It is all right, Sissy. Mrs. Weasley is sympathetic to house elves." He prompted.  
  
Sissy looked at Hermione. "When Master Samuel died, I became the property of his only child. Master Severus." She said, looking up at Hermione. "Master Severus and I have." And she paused, looking behind her to where Severus stood. He nodded once. "We has been friends forever. He presented me with clothes four summers ago, when he came home from teaching at his school. I was devastated, but master Severus said he did not want me to leave, but to know that I could leave if I ever wanted to." And she drew herself to her almost non-existent height and said. "I will never leave Master Severus family. Never." She turned to Severus, who nodded again, and she scurried out of the room.  
  
Hermione covered her face with her hand. "Oh no!" she wailed. "Oh no! I did it again."  
  
Severus said, "Hermione, I never thought the day would come when I would be confessing that your campaign to free house elves would inspire me to free my own. But I did. Sissy has seen after me since before I was born." She lowered her hand and looked at him. He frowned deeply and approached her with a very menacing look. "And if you ever tell anyone, I will see you thrown in Azkaban for putting me under the Imperius Curse." And he winked.  
  
Everyone laughed and relaxed. While pouring drinks, Sissy reappeared and looked at Severus as if he was completely out of his mind. She retreated shaking her head and muttering.  
  
"House elves do not adjust well to change." Severus said, handing Arthur Weasley a drink. "She will still tell both myself and my wife off if we so much as answer the door."  
  
"She told Amethyst she needed to know her place when she let us in," Harry told the Weasleys.  
  
"I had to threaten to go back on my word and throw her out of this house a fair few times." Severus said.  
  
Amethyst chuckled. "I picked up a mop one day and she blasted it out of my hands. That's when we realised we'd just have to get away with as much as she'd let us and not push her too much."  
  
"I'm sorry." Hermione said. "I just have a hard time seeing Severus Snapes house elf staying when she could go."  
  
"I am a docile little kitten compared to my father." Severus said, and then fell silent.  
  
They talked about the reasons they bought the building near the Leaky Caldron over lunch. "I have been approached by the Ministry of Magic." Severus said, "About heading a new department. The Department of Potions Regulations. I agreed on the condition that I am allowed to choose the location of the department and my staff. The building we bought is going to be the headquarters of the Department of Potions Regulations and the Department of Independent Investigations."  
  
"I heard they were talking about starting those departments." Said Arthur, who worked for the Ministry. "Potions regulation is desperately needed, I can't argue that, but I am not so sure about this Department of Independent Investigations. They would have to be very careful who would work in that department."  
  
"Isn't Independent Investigation an oxymoron?" Hermione asked, looking very confused.  
  
Amethyst laughed. "You should have been an American, Hermione." She stopped laughing but continued to smile. "The Department of Independent Investigation will not be run by Ministry Wizards, strictly speaking. They sought out the one person they could think of who could be trusted to resist the Ministry in favour of what is right. They will most likely regret beginning this department." She chuckled.  
  
"So who will be the head of this new department?" Ron asked.  
  
"I will." Sirius said, casually.  
  
Harry, Ron and Bill all choked.  
  
"They wanted someone who was known for flying off the handle?" Bill said, incredulously.  
  
"Yes." Sirius said, simply.  
  
"All by yourself?" Hermione asked, looking concerned.  
  
"Well, no, actually." Sirius said. "I'm going to need a couple of assistants."  
  
Harry and Ron looked at each other, then at Sirius.  
  
"Ron?" Sirius said.  
  
Ron, who had been out of work ever since his brother Percy had fired him for having a cluttered desk, spoke quickly. "I'm there."  
  
"Well?" Sirius said. "Harry, I know you haven't had much to do since Voldemorts' died. You must be getting bored."  
  
Harry gaped. Work with Sirius? That was a simple enough answer.  
  
"Count me in." He said.  
  
Sirius nodded.  
  
Throughout the rest of the meal, during the friendly conversation and wonderful food, Harry thought about the last year or so. He felt that there had been more changes to his world in this one year than almost any other he could think of. The topper was when he turned eleven years old and found out he was a wizard, but this past year was definitely a close second. The biggest surprise, he thought to himself, as Severus and Sirius got into a heated argument about wand cores, was what was right before his eyes. He would never have believed that Sirius Black and Severus Snape could ever get along. And although it didn't appear like they did to the unknowing eye (as Amethyst stood up and told them that if they were going to throw curses at each other they had better take it outside), Harry knew they were getting along splendidly. For them. 


	11. Chapter Eleven: The Potion

The Liber Severi  
Liber I - Severus Snape's True Love  
  
Copyright (c) 2001 by Cassandra Houston  
Illustrations by Gabriel (http://www.angelfire.com/art/angelgabriel/)  
  
  
  
Author's Notes:  
  
Most of the characters within belong to JK Rowling. Amethyst Rayne Black Snape, Lapis Meaker and some others belong to me, Cassandra Houston. I will not accept money for this book, nor any others made with the wonderful characters JK Rowling has created. I am only putting on paper my interpretation and theory of what the Rowling characters may have been like before the Harry Potter series and what they may be like after. I am not trying to insult or steal from Rowling. I am only having fun here.  
  
If you like what you read (and I certainly hope you do), please feel free to forward a copy of this ebook along to friends, family and anyone else who may enjoy its contents.  
  
I must take the time here to thank Gabriel. Gabriel! You are a saint and I am forever in your debt!  
  
I now give you Severus Snape's True Love, the first in the Liber Severi series.  
  
Cassandra Houston  
  
  
Chapter Eleven: The Potion  
  
  
Severus straightened and glared down at his own handwriting. He closed his eyes. "This is not happening." He whispered.  
  
"What?" Amethyst said, straightening up from the caldron on the fire.  
  
"Nothing." Severus lied to his wife for the first time in he couldn't remember when. Probably since they first met in the clearing. "I was just marveling at the complexity of this potion." He added, since that much was true.  
  
They'd received the potion that morning and had spent the better part of the day analysing it. The potion had come with a note from the Ministry of Magic asking for the analysis. It was being sold in the wizarding world as a tranquilizer and had landed five wizards in the hospital where they slowly deteriorated to a near death like state. Fortunately they were able to give descriptions of the wizard who sold them the potion.  
  
Severus double-checked the potion on the fire just so he wouldn't have to face his wife. "It is ready to be bottled." He said, slowly. "Do that while I check downstairs." He said and turned without a word, feeling, more than seeing Amethysts half bewildered, half angry eyes on his back.  
  
Downstairs, Sirius, Harry and Ron were leaning over several pieces of parchment. Sirius glanced up casually at Severus' approach, and did a double take. "What's the matter with you?" He asked. "You look brassed up."  
  
Severus scowled. "The price I have to pay being stuck in the same building with you." He snapped. "How is your investigation going?"  
  
Sirius ignored the jab. He knew Severus probably didn't mean it. Probably. "The victims are all young. They're the sorts who don't feel good about themselves. One had acne and one was very overweight. You know the type."  
  
Severus nodded. Ron picked up the thread. "They are all illegal potions users of old. Pretty bombed out lot. We got a pretty good description of their grafter, though." And he started rummaging through all the pieces of parchment and organizing them, mumbling as he went.  
  
"About" he frowned. "That American bloke said he was about six foot two inches. What is that in English."  
  
"Severus and I are six foot two American." Sirius said, calculating.  
  
"Right then. About your height" Ron said and returned to sifting through the parchment.  
  
"That girl put him at about eighty kilograms."  
  
More shuffling.  
  
"Dark hair. Long. Greasy."  
  
"Long hands, thin."  
  
"Dark eyes. Said they gave him the creeps."  
  
"Pale."  
  
Ron looked up suddenly, "Hey that sounds like, -"  
  
Harry and Sirius were staring at Severus. "That sounds like you, mate." Sirius said solemnly.  
  
"'This is not happening.'" Said a voice from the stairs.  
  
Amethyst was standing on the stairs, staring at Severus. She came the rest of the way down the stairs and walked right up to Severus. "That's what you were saying, earlier." She said, looking up at him, looking concerned.  
  
"Yes." Severus said.  
  
"Now, a few years ago, I would have said you'd done it all right. Poisoned a bunch of illegal potion using wizards." Harry said, softly. "But I can't believe it now. I know you now."  
  
"That's not your style." Sirius said. "It wasn't then, either, for that."  
  
"Then who is it?" Ron asked. He was still looking over the pieces of parchment, re-reading their notes. "Because they have all described Snape."  
  
"They have at that." Severus whispered, staring into his wife's eyes. "But it wasn't me."  
  
"I know that." Amethyst said softly. "But who could it have been? And why are they describing you?"  
  
Severus broke eye contact and began pacing the room. He didn't speak for a long moment. He eventually walked to a window and looked out onto the mid-October afternoon.  
  
"What is it, love?" Amethyst said softly to his back.  
  
"I only know of two wizards who are capable of making a potion as complex as the one we analyzed today." He said. "One of them is, of course, myself." He turned to face them. "The other." He began pacing again. "But it's not possible. It just can't be."  
  
Sirius got in front of Severus and stopped him. They looked into each other's eyes. "What?" Sirius said.  
  
Severus took a deep breath. "That potion is a variation on the old Draught of the Living Death. But this one adds powdered moonflowers. It is very complex. Very dangerous."  
  
"And who besides you is capable of making it, so we can go and arrest them." Harry said.  
  
"The only other wizard capable of making that potion besides myself," Severus said and everyone was surprised to hear a quavering in his voice. "Is Samuel Snape. My father."  
  
The silence that greeted this was so pronounced that they could hear the Muggles walking along on the street two floors below. Amethyst broke the silence.  
  
"But your father is dead. The Death Eaters killed him. You took a leave of absence. I remember. It was in my Seventh Year at Hogwarts."  
  
Severus was shaking his head. "Not if he cast the Dark Mark himself, then drank the Draught of Living Death."  
  
"Why would he do that?" Harry asked, incredulously.  
  
"Yes." Severus did not appear to have heard Harry. "You see, my father was a Death Eater. A disgraced Death Eater, no less, and that is no easy feat. They would have killed him, eventually, no doubt and the assumption at the time was that a rogue Death Eater killed him. But if he staged his death."  
  
"But that's crazy." Ron said.  
  
Severus laughed humorlessly. "My father was insane, Ron. He killed my mother when I was just a boy. He beat her to death." He said, shaking slightly at the memory. "He beat me every chance he got. He sought me out just to beat me. As a student at Hogwarts I was relatively safe, but I could not stay there year round."  
  
Amethyst was staring, her eyes hard. "You think he's somehow alive?"  
  
Severus looked at his wife. "I know he is." He said. "I don't know how, but I know he is."  
  
  
  
Severus sat by the fire and calmed his breathing. That had been the worst argument he had ever had. He alone, against Sirius and Amethyst. They had argued with him for hours. Sirius saw the logic first and the two of them spent another hour trying to talk Amethyst into agreeing. She was a stubborn woman sometimes. Working together, he and Sirius had managed to get Amethyst to see their logic. (Severus still marvelled at the idea that he could work with Sirius Black.) He'd kissed his wife passionately and she went with Sirius to his flat to wait for him to finish this.  
  
For Severus knew why his father was poisoning wizards. He was trying to get his attention. Samuel Snape knew well how to get his sons attention. He had dragged Severus into many altercations during Severus' childhood and every time Severus would rise to the bait. And Samuel would beat his son down. Literally.  
  
Not tonight.  
  
Sissy walked into the room and bowed low before Severus. "Yes Sissy." He said, quietly.  
  
"I is going to beg you to not do this, Master Severus." Sissy squealed.  
  
"This has been coming for a long time, Sissy. You know that. I thought he died before I could finish it. Now I know better." He said, simply. "And this conversation is over, Sissy. You may go. Do not disturb me again. I will call you if I need you."  
  
The house elf bit her lip, but turned and walked away.  
  
Severus heard the swish of the cloak and looked up. Out of the shadows across the room walked Samuel Snape. He looked, of course, much older than Severus remembered him, but he was still just as thin as all Snape men were. Thin, but muscular. Strong.  
  
"Severus," he drawled. "It has been a long time."  
  
Severus said nothing. Samuel removed his cloak.  
  
"Still a sullen little brat." He father said, draping his cloak over an empty chair. "I am glad you got my message." He walked into the firelight. "Can you not say hello to your father?" Severus stood. He'd grown to be half a head taller than his father and he enjoyed looking down at him. And enjoyed the look his father got when he realised his son was no longer a full head and more shorter than he. "What happened, Father?" he asked quietly, glaring down at the man who made his life unbearable for so very long.  
  
"I was on a hit list." His father said. "My fellow Death Eaters felt the need for my demise. Something about funds stolen." He shrugged. "I arranged my own death. I cast the Dark Mark over the house. It was very simple. I waited in the near death state for the potion to wear off. I suppose in my nerves, I made the Draught too strong. It has taken me these twenty years or so to come back."  
  
"Why come back, Father?" Severus asked. "Why not stay in your grave for the maggots?"  
  
Samuel laughed. "Ah" he breathed. "You developed a rapier wit not unlike my own, Severus." His eyes flashed. "I came back to claim what is mine. My house, my land, and my son. But I see there is so much more now. A wife, Severus? And a beautiful one. I never would have believed. I just knew you had to be one of those funny guys fucking other funny guys every chance you got." He laughed as Severus nostrils flared. "But she is not getting what she deserves. A real man. I will claim her, also."  
  
Severus tightened his jaw. And pulled out his wand. His father did the same. Samuel handed his wand to Severus and Severus turned to put both wands on the mantel over the fire.  
  
"I am glad you remember how I like it, Severus." Samuel said. "Wands are truly the cowards way."  
  
Severus turned from the fire and struck with the speed and accuracy of a viper. He punched his father, catching him off guard and sending him sprawling. Samuel recovered and found his feet.  
  
"Well, I see you have improved your fighting skills, Severus. Spar with that whore of yours, do you?" and he came at Severus with an uppercut.  
  
Severus caught his fist and bent his wrist back. Samuel slowly fell to his knees. Severus brought his fathers arm behind his back, almost dislocating his shoulder. Now behind Samuel, and with a good grip on the right arm and the left shoulder, Severus, still braced against any sudden moves from his father, bent and whispered into his fathers' ear.  
  
"I felt so cheated when the Dark Mark appeared over the house." He tightened his grip on his fathers shoulder. "I wanted to be the one to kill you. You killed my mother and did everything in your power to keep me down. Now you dare come into my home and call my wife a whore?" He pulled on his fathers arm, dislocating the shoulder. "I always suspected you might have taken the Draught of Living Death. But I didn't think you would make such a stupid mistake and knock yourself out for more than twenty years." He pushed his father to the floor and pinned him. He let go of the dislocated shoulder and listened to the pain in his fathers breathing. He put his right hand on the top of his fathers' head. "How many times did you dislocate my shoulder, just as I have now dislocated yours, Father?" he asked, still in a whisper. "A dozen? Two dozen?" He caressed his fathers face with his left hand.  
  
"Severus." Samuel gasped. "Please."  
  
Severus slipped his left hand under his fathers chin. He cradled his fathers' head with his right hand. "I have no Draught for you tonight, Father. No living Death for you. No waking in twenty years. Or two hundred. Or ever." And he quickly moved his left hand, jerking the head until he could look into his fathers dead left eye. Samuel Snape's neck was broken.  
  
Severus looked into the eye for several minutes before he stood. He double-checked for a pulse. He spit on the corpse and walked from the room, calling "Sissy! Take this filth out of my house! Burn it!" 


	12. Chapter Twelve: Old Acquaintances

The Liber Severi  
Liber I - Severus Snape's True Love  
  
Copyright (c) 2001 by Cassandra Houston  
Illustrations by Gabriel (http://www.angelfire.com/art/angelgabriel/)  
  
  
  
Author's Notes:  
  
Most of the characters within belong to JK Rowling. Amethyst Rayne Black Snape, Lapis Meaker and some others belong to me, Cassandra Houston. I will not accept money for this book, nor any others made with the wonderful characters JK Rowling has created. I am only putting on paper my interpretation and theory of what the Rowling characters may have been like before the Harry Potter series and what they may be like after. I am not trying to insult or steal from Rowling. I am only having fun here.  
  
If you like what you read (and I certainly hope you do), please feel free to forward a copy of this ebook along to friends, family and anyone else who may enjoy its contents.  
  
I must take the time here to thank Gabriel. Gabriel! You are a saint and I am forever in your debt!  
  
I now give you Severus Snape's True Love, the first in the Liber Severi series.  
  
Cassandra Houston  
  
  
Chapter Twelve: Old Acquaintances  
  
  
Amethyst appeared in front of her brothers' door and knocked. She heard him moving around inside. She had barged in on her brother often as a girl and learned the hard way to knock before entering his living space. Sirius opened the door, chest bare. He was in a pair of sweat pants.  
  
"Should I come back?" she asked, her eyebrows raised.  
  
"Um, well," Sirius said, running his fingers through his hair. "Nah, come on in." he lowered his voice, so only she could hear him "And help me out of this."  
  
Amethyst walked in the room and saw a witch she did not know sitting on the sofa. She was blonde with short, straight hair and a girlish face. The witch looked at her from her seat. "Hello."  
  
Amethyst looked at the witch as if she were an interesting bug. She nodded. Once.  
  
The witch on the couch squirmed. "I'm Laureli." she stood and offered her hand, which Amethyst looked at with raised eyebrows. She now looked Laureli up and down, which made Laureli look even more uncomfortable.  
  
Laureli lowered her hand. "You're a friend of Sirius'?" she asked, beginning to look around for some help from Sirius, who had managed to retreat into his kitchen.  
  
Amethyst snorted and increased her look of contempt at the girl. "We are," and here she paused for effect before saying, "close."  
  
Laureli's eyes widened. "Oh," she said, her voice shaking slightly. Amethyst was now looking at her with a sneer. "Well, we were just," Laureli began.  
  
"Leave." Amethyst said, her voice low.  
  
Laureli looked panic stricken in the moment before Amethyst stepped aside, leaving her way to the door clear. "You'll tell Sirius I said good-bye?" she said on her way down the hall.  
  
Amethyst sighed and shook her head. "Right." she said. "I'll be sure to do that."  
  
Sirius came from the kitchen. "Thanks. I am so glad you showed up." he said, hugging his sister. "That wasn't going well."  
  
"Good thing your secret weapon showed up, isn't it?"  
  
"You have no idea!" Sirius said, adamantly. "I was getting changed when I hear this knock and there she is. I don't know that woman. She must have seen me in a club or something or knows some other girl I've been with. I didn't even know her name until she told it to you!"  
  
Amethyst snorted again. "Sexy Sirius Black." she said. "Can't keep track of the women there are so many of them."  
  
"I don't go seeking all this attention, you know." he said a bit indignantly. Then he looked at her "How did you do that, by the way? Make her leave like the place was on fire?"  
  
Amethyst smiled. "You know I have always had the ability to become a nasty piece of work." she said. "I just did."  
  
Sirius whistled. "You know, you really are the perfect match to Severus Snape."  
  
Amethyst grinned. "I know." she got a devilish look in her eyes. "If you only knew how many times Severus and I have gotten really rough and nasty with each other," she began.  
  
"So you must have showed up for some reason besides getting my arse out of deep shit." Sirius said, sounding desperate to change the subject.  
  
Amethyst started. "Yes." she said, "I came here to tell you that Hermione gave birth last night, or this morning, or something like that." she said, happy in the mischief she caused. "She sent that mouse owl of hers, Pig-something. Acerbus came close to eating him."  
  
"Boy or a girl?" Sirius asked.  
  
"Boys." Amethyst said, raising her eyebrows. "Three boys as a matter of fact. Harry, Michael and David."  
  
Sirius' jaw dropped. "Triplets?" he gasped. "I thought she was just big from all that eating."  
  
Amethyst looked at her watch. "Well," she said. "I have to go here, myself. I just wanted to let you know. Hermione asked me to spread the word. I'll leave it to you to tell Harry, all right?"  
  
"Where are you off to?" he asked.  
  
"Our beloved Ministry of Magic has screwed up big time. They have managed to lose all the paperwork on the arrest they made of Malfoy and his little girlfriends." Amethyst sneered. "Lucius is back and is demanding his son be let out of Azkaban."  
  
"Your going to the Ministry?" Sirius said.  
  
"Nope, I'm going to the Malfoy cottage. Lucius wants to talk to me."  
  
"Are you mad?" Sirius said. "You can't go alone."  
  
"I won't be brother, don't worry." Amethyst said, addressing her brother in clipped tones. "Severus will be joining me." she held out her hand. "I'll be needing my Cobra."  
  
Amethyst and Sirius both had a love of Muggle cars. Sirius once owned a motorcycle. While in the States, Amethyst had purchased a 1962 AC Cobra 289 which she had enchanted.  
  
"What for?" Sirius said, grabbing the keys off of his coffee table.  
  
"To annoy Lucius, of course." Amethyst said, smiling broadly.  
  
  
  
Amethyst pulled into the driveway of the Malfoy mansion and stopped the car. She honked the horn, which was magically magnified. She and Severus sat and waited.  
  
They could see Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy walk out of their front door. They stared at the car then Lucius pulled out his wand and pointed it at them. The wrought iron gates opened and they drove up the driveway to the house. Amethyst enjoyed the look on Lucius' face. Jealousy and hate. Lucius Malfoy may not like Muggles or anything to do with them, but he knew an expensive Muggle car when he saw one, and the Cobra was obviously quite a piece.  
  
She and Severus got out of the car. They followed Lucius and his sullen wife into the house, where they went into the Malfoys sitting room. Lucius then turned to Amethyst and said, in a soft voice, "Amethyst. I admired you from afar at school. How selfish of Severus to keep you a secret all these years. We Death Eaters are supposed to share."  
  
Severus shrugged. "Would you share her, Lucius?" he asked.  
  
Lucius laughed. "You have a very valid point there, Severus. No, I probably wouldn't either." He walked to Amethyst and put a finger under her chin. "But the little sister of Sirius Black? How did you win such a prize? And is she one of us?" he asked, addressing Severus but asking the questions to Amethyst.  
  
Amethyst jerked her head, freeing herself of Lucius' finger. "You knew my brother, Lucius." she said, drawing from the very real contempt she'd held her for her brother for so many years. "I am sure that your son has told you my story. My brother is my father's son. And I am my mother's daughter. Do not judge me falsely simply because I do not bear the Dark Mark."  
  
Lucius gaze turned to Severus. "You have been seen, both of you, in the company of Sirius Black and Harry Potter." he said, his gray eyes locking with Severus' black ones. "This does not look very promising. Could you be trying to switch sides? Could you be trying to redeem yourself, Severus?"  
  
Severus' punch sent Lucius Malfoy to the floor. Narcissa gasped and covered her mouth with her hand. Amethyst didn't even flinch. She watched as Lucius got to his feet as Severus said, "How dare you even suggest I have been unworthy! You dare question my association with my own brother-in-law and his godson. I did not choose my in laws, but contact with Harry Potter might just be of use some day." he hissed.  
  
Lucius Malfoy rubbed his jaw. "Forgive me, Severus." he said. "It slipped my mind your manipulation of Albus Dumbledore. You did risk a great deal in convincing him you had given us up." He dropped his arm. "Blame it on my recent stresses with my son and my trip. Or blame it on your wife, whose beauty is intoxicating."  
  
Severus sneered. "Perhaps I should keep my wife away from Malfoy men. They seem to lose their minds in her presence."  
  
Lucius laughed long and hard at this. Then he offered them drinks, which were refused. Amethyst stepped forward and asked, "Just what did you want to see me about, Lucius?"  
  
Lucius nodded. "All business. I like that. Little wonder you are with Severus." he said. "I have heard very little about what happened. The Department of Magical Law Enforcement will tell me nothing more than my son and some of his friends were delivered to them, by you. The charge against my son was kidnapping and assault. But they tell me that he was quite mangled when he was delivered to them." and here he looked at Severus.  
  
"Don't look at me, Lucius. I didn't lay a finger on the boy." he grinned. "By the time I got here, the boy was already unconscious."  
  
Lucius looked at Amethyst with his eyebrows raised. "Are you telling me," he said, softly, "That my son was beaten by a woman?"  
  
"I have told you nothing, Lucius." Amethyst said. "But the story you tell is true. Draco was upset by something I said to him and he wanted to teach me respect." she allowed herself half a grin. "However it is I who taught him. And I do so hope he has learned something from his visit to Azkaban."  
  
Lucius scowled. "I am sure he has." he said "However they will not allow visitors to Azkaban and so we have not seen him in over a year. I was away on business when all of this transpired. I left on an errand for our Lord and I just returned a few days ago. Of course, I heard all about our Lords demise." and here he stopped, suddenly.  
  
"And you thought you would prolong your trip, lest the Aurors catch up with you?" Severus volunteered.  
  
"Well, someone trustworthy had to remain free." Lucius said. "I thought even you dead, Severus. It seems they were very thorough in finding out who the last of us were." he looked anxious.  
  
"You were down at the Ministry and were not arrested, however." Severus said.  
  
"I did not go down to the Ministry. Narcissa went." and he looked at his wife. "It seems I am house bound, for now."  
  
Narcissa, who had remained quiet until now, spoke. "I want my son back. You have been at least relatively friendly with people around the Ministry." she said to Severus. "I would like you to see to my sons return."  
  
Severus nodded. "You think I have some power within the Ministry? My Department is Potions, not Prisons, Narcissa." he said.  
  
Narcissa looked at Amethyst. "Perhaps you have connections through your brother?"  
  
Amethyst looked at Narcissa. "Perhaps." she said. "I will speak to him." and at the pleading look Narcissa gave her, added. "I make you no promises, Narcissa. My brother and I have not seen eye to eye on a great many things in a great many years. But I will talk to him. Tonight."  
  
Narcissa was visibly relieved. The meeting was now over, and Lucius showed them out to their car. "This is a fascinating thing." he said. "Yours?"  
  
"Yes." Amethyst. "I do not have the complete obsession with Muggle things that my brother has. I do own this Muggle car, however. I got it while I was abroad. Do you know anything about Muggle automobiles, Lucius?"  
  
Lucius nodded. "A bit. I find them fascinating. So large. A broom isn't good enough for you and your brother?"  
  
Amethyst laughed. She got in the car and started it. She hopped out of the car and motioned Lucius over to it. "Put your hand there, Lucius." she said, motioning to the hood. Lucius did, reluctantly. "Do you feel the power, Lucius? This particular car is a 1962 AC Cobra. My brother owns a 1960 Jaguar E-Type. They are both powerful, classic cars. And, quite frankly, far more comfortable than any broomstick."  
  
Lucius was looking over the Cobra. It was such a deep shade of purple it almost looked black. "This runs on, what do you call it, petronium."  
  
"Petrol." Amethyst corrected. "Cars do run on petrol, but not this one and not my brothers. We've enchanted our cars. They run off of magic."  
  
Lucius nodded, his hand still feeling the rumbling engine. "Yes, there is a lot of power here. But Muggle artifacts turn my stomach."  
  
"That's a shame, Lucius." Amethyst said. "Now get your hand off my hood so I can go talk to my brother before he starts hitting the pubs." Lucius could not see Amethysts face, as the sun was in his eyes, so he did not see the flash of a grin.  
  
Lucius walked back into his house. Before he closed his door, he said, "Keep us informed." and he was gone.  
  
Once they'd driven well away from the Malfoys, Severus spoke. "That was very interesting."  
  
"Yes it was." Amethyst said. "Lucius is dangerous, still." She pulled up at Sirius apartment building. "He is the last known Death Eater. I don't doubt that he has been recruiting, trying to get more wizards on the Dark Side." The trip from Lucius house to Sirius' apartment had taken twenty minutes, although it was a trip of 80 kilometers or more between the two residences. She pulled out her wand and secured a parking place for herself. They got out and Amethyst pointed her wand at the car and said "Securus."  
  
Sirius was home and Harry was with him. They listened to their story with raised eyebrows. "Well, old Lucius is keeping tabs on you, is he?" he said to Severus, who simply growled in reply.  
  
"Lucius Malfoy is the only real threat to Harry left." Amethyst said. "Any other Death Eaters are either kids still in school or rotting in Azkaban." She sighed. "He is a force to be reckoned with."  
  
"And he needs to be reckoned with." Severus growled.  
  
"What are you talking about?" Harry said, worried. "What are you planning to do with Lucius Malfoy?" he looked into Amethyst and Severus's faces. "You aren't going to kill him?"  
  
Amethyst threw up her hands. "Talk to him, brother." she said in a very exasperated tone.  
  
Sirius sighed. "They are talking about killing Lucius Malfoy, Harry. And I agree with them. It's a very good idea." He said, seeing Harry's shocked expression. "The ends justify the means, Harry, don't you see. There is one single person that can really hurt you left. I don't doubt that the Death Eaters are not really gone, just fractured. You can protect yourself now. With a little help from your friends. The only threat to you is Lucius Malfoy and it would be completely irresponsible to just allow him to go on about his life."  
  
Harry opened his mouth, and then closed it. He remained silent a long time, thinking. "But he hasn't done anything."  
  
Severus laughed, "You mean besides being in on all those plots to kill you over the last nineteen years or so?"  
  
"How can you consider killing someone so casually?" Harry demanded.  
  
Amethyst approached Harry. "Listen Harry." she said, sounding half gentle and half impatient. "You really aren't like us. You are not a killer." she waved her arm and took in Sirius and Severus. "We are. That does not make us bad, or evil. None of has killed just for the pleasure of killing." she laughed a bitter laugh. "We only kill people who get in the way of what we consider to be right. All three of us are capable of being cold and cruel and vicious and downright nasty to others in order to bring about what needs to be brought about. The ends justify the means. Do you understand what I am saying?"  
  
Harry looked at her, and then his eyes took in Sirius and Severus. "No." he said, honestly. "But I also know that I won't be able to convince you not to kill Lucius Malfoy and I just might get hurt trying to stop you."  
  
Amethyst smiled. "True enough." she said.  
  
"Lets get planning then." Severus said, sitting down. 


	13. Chapter Thirteen: Plots and Schemes

The Liber Severi  
Liber I - Severus Snape's True Love  
  
Copyright (c) 2001 by Cassandra Houston  
Illustrations by Gabriel (http://www.angelfire.com/art/angelgabriel/)  
  
  
  
Author's Notes:  
  
Most of the characters within belong to JK Rowling. Amethyst Rayne Black Snape, Lapis Meaker and some others belong to me, Cassandra Houston. I will not accept money for this book, nor any others made with the wonderful characters JK Rowling has created. I am only putting on paper my interpretation and theory of what the Rowling characters may have been like before the Harry Potter series and what they may be like after. I am not trying to insult or steal from Rowling. I am only having fun here.  
  
If you like what you read (and I certainly hope you do), please feel free to forward a copy of this ebook along to friends, family and anyone else who may enjoy its contents.  
  
I must take the time here to thank Gabriel. Gabriel! You are a saint and I am forever in your debt!  
  
I now give you Severus Snape's True Love, the first in the Liber Severi series.  
  
Cassandra Houston  
  
  
Chapter Thirteen: Plots and Schemes  
  
  
"I am telling you," Severus said, sounding extremely frustrated, "That we have to get to him by invitation. He has increased the security around his home since he's been back in Britain, but he is still too arrogant to secure himself against much within his walls. He believes nothing can touch him inside his home."  
  
He was lying on his back, on the sofa, lecturing to the ceiling. Amethyst was sitting on the kitchen counter, between kitchen and sitting room. Her head was lowered between her shoulder blades and she was scowling. Sirius was thrown in one of two large armchairs. One leg thrown carelessly over an arm and head thrown over the other. Harry was in the other armchair, watching with absolute fascination.  
  
They'd been at this for an hour. The problem they were having was that Sirius wanted to be as covert as possible with the murder of Lucius. Severus and Amethyst had been telling him that a covert strike would never work. They would have to get in his house.  
  
"In his face." Amethyst said.  
  
"Fine, then." Sirius said. "You win, Severus. We'll have to get in his house."  
  
"Thank you." Severus said to the ceiling.  
  
"So now what? Another hour long discussion about exactly what we're going to do once we get on the property?" Sirius said, irritated.  
  
A small pop caused Harry to look at Amethyst. She had disappeared.  
  
"Where'd she go?" he asked, alarmed.  
  
Sirius sighed. "Probably went to do the job without us."  
  
Severus was chuckling and when Harry looked at him, his eyes were closed. "She went home." he announced. "She is plotting something." he said. And he opened his eyes.  
  
"What is she plotting, is the question." Sirius said.  
  
"Well, she was headed for my laboratory if that tells you anything." Severus said, throwing his long legs off the sofa and sitting up.  
  
It was full dark now. The moon was up. Severus went to the window, which faced the front of the apartment building and looked up. "Full moon." he said. "Shame, we won't be able to let Remus in on this."  
  
"I doubt he'd do it." Sirius said, dragging himself from his chair and joining Severus at the window. He glanced down. "What's this?" and he knocked Severus on the arm, getting his attention.  
  
A shifty looking fellow was looking at Amethysts car. "He better not touch it." Severus said. "She has a nasty security charm on that car."  
  
The man was definitely looking at the car. He looked left and right and even up, but as there was no light in Sirius' apartment, he could not see the two men looking at him.  
  
"Don't be a fool." Sirius said. "My sister knows her security charms."  
  
Harry got up, but Sirius half turned and said. "You don't want to see this, Harry. Amethyst takes her car very seriously and I wouldn't be surprised if the charm on it is deadly."  
  
Harry went to the window anyway.  
  
The man was wearing a trench coat, against the early December chill, which he opened and took something from.  
  
"He's going to try and steal the car." Harry said.  
  
The man looked all around him again, and then touched the car door.  
  
"He's disappeared." Harry said. "What happened to him?"  
  
But Severus and Sirius were scanning the street below. "There he is." Severus said, pointing.  
  
A mouse, that looked like it had a black jacket on, was running in circles on the sidewalk, apparently frantic.  
  
"She turned him into a mouse?" Harry said. "What for?"  
  
"Shhhhhhhh," Sirius said, "Wait, watch and learn. Amethyst should be a security expert. Probably would be if her charms weren't so dangerous."  
  
Harry saw movement out of the corner of his eye. A huge cat was prowling up the street, he followed Sirius' gaze and saw another cat. Severus was watching the progress of the third. The cats were stalking the mouse. The biggest one swiped at it. The smallest one did also.  
  
"Are you boys planning on watching that mouse get played to death?" Amethyst had returned, unnoticed.  
  
Severus was shaking his head. "You are one cold lady." he said, but Harry heard reverence in his voice.  
  
Amethyst smiled a smile that made Harry's blood run cold. She had two bottles of some potion or other and a huge black owl with her.  
  
"Remind me never to make you angry," said Harry, looking at the owl and the bottles.  
  
Amethyst ignored him and addressed Severus. "Flattery will get you everywhere." she said. She let the owl lose and it flew to the chair Harry had just vacated. She put the bottles on the coffee table.  
  
"You think that was cold?" she said, motioning to the window where the car thief/mouse was still being played like a pre-dinner snack. "Just wait until you hear what I'm scheming now."  
  
  
  
Melissa Malone answered the door. She hated her job. The pay was horrible. Now that everyone else had been sacked and she was the single remaining servant, you would think she would get a raise in pay, but none had come. At this rate, she would never have enough money saved to move into her own place and away from her boss. Provided her boss would allow her to leave the house. Since he got so much pleasure from her, after his wife went to bed, she doubted it.  
  
She opened the door and found herself facing a black robed stomach. She looked up and found herself looking into the scowling face of Severus Snape. She remembered him from the days of the Dark Lord. He terrified her. The only smile she'd ever seen on his face was when he'd cursed people in this very house -- a regular occurrence several years ago, when he came regularly to this place. She had not seen him in over two years, and she had not missed him one bit.  
  
"Severus Snape to see Lucius Malfoy." he growled at her, quietly, as if talking to himself.  
  
Melissa let him in and took him into the drawing room, where her boss waited with his wife. Lucius looked at Severus and said, "Ah, Snape, what a surprise. You have news, I assume. Where is your lovely wife?"  
  
Snape gave Malfoy an evil looking grin. "We decided she would not come. Remember, she seems to have a negative effect on your mental faculties."  
  
Lucius turned red. "Melissa, bring extra wine for our guest."  
  
Before Melissa could even flinch, Severus said, "No, Malfoy, I did not come here for wine. I came with news."  
  
Lucius Malfoy dismissed Melissa with a wave, and she returned to the kitchen. She was preparing to bring out the bottle of wine her boss and his wife liked so much. They would drink it, then they would switch to port. Then Narcissa would retire and Lucius would come to her. The idea made her sick.  
  
She heard a scratching and whining at the kitchen door. "One of those horrible dogs?" she thought than decided it wasn't. They never came near the house unless there was food. She opened the door and saw an enormous black dog grinning up at her. It was whining and whimpering and seemed to be hurt. It was holding up one of its paws.  
  
Melissa loved dogs, except those of her boss and his family. They were mean, terrible animals. This one was looking at her with big sad eyes that made her trust and pity it. She bent over and patted the dog on the head. "Hurt yourself big fella?" she crooned. "Those mean dogs of the Mister attack you?"  
  
She was jerked up by her hair. A woman she had never seen before had her by her shoulder length blonde hair. Melissa saw a determined look on the woman's face and murder in her eyes.  
  
"I need this." she whispered as she yanked a handful of hair out of Melissa's head. Melissa would have screamed but the woman stuffed a rag in her mouth the second she's opened it.  
  
She pushed Melissa back gently and Melissa saw her pull out a wand. As she raised her hand to remove the rag and scream for help, when she heard a whispered, "Deleo."  
  
Melissa Malone ceased to exist.  
  
  
  
"Tell me your news, then." Lucius said, amicable.  
  
"Sirius Black has a friend in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement." Snape said, slowly. "As big a fool as Sirius Black, maybe even more of one."  
  
Lucius laughed, "You oughtn't speak ill of your brother-in-law. Makes for a cold bed at night."  
  
"I was giving you my wife's impression, not mine." Severus said. "Anyway, this friend will be making all the arrangements to release Draco. Give it a week, and he should be home."  
  
Narcissa smiled broadly. "Thank you so much, Severus." she said.  
  
Lucius agreed. "Yes, Snape, thank you." he motioned to the bottle. "Would you care to join us for a drink?"  
  
The servant girl had returned with a bottle of wine. She poured for Lucius and Narcissa then stayed right by Lucius' side.  
  
"No, thank you, Lucius." Severus said. "I prefer port in any event and I oughtn't drink tonight. My wife insisted I make it here with all haste and so I drove that wretched car of hers, since you have made it impossible to Apparate on your property."  
  
Lucius laughed and drained his glass. His wife did the same. Melissa refilled them immediately. "I would love to see you drive that car off, Severus." he drained his glass again, and stood. "We shall see you to the door."  
  
Narcissa drained her glass also and stood to walk Severus to the door. They stood watching Severus as he walked up to his car. "Oh, yes, Malfoy, there is one other thing." he said, turning to face them.  
  
Lucius and Narcissa were suddenly taken with unbearable pains in their stomachs. They doubled over. Narcissa landed on her knees, grasping for her husbands robes, but Lucius was no help. He was also on his knees, then on his side, writhing in agony. They screamed their pain, and Melissa appeared in the doorway. She looked down on her employers, emotionless.  
  
They stood there for another forty minutes, watching the Malfoys die. They had bled from the nose, eyes and ears. They died crumpled from their writhing.  
  
"Never mind, Lucius." Severus said, softly. "I guess it wasn't that important, really."  
  
He looked up at Melissa. "Come, my dear." he said, walking to the passenger side of the car and opening the door. The huge black dog ran around the corner of the house and jumped in the car before Severus. Melissa got in the car and started it.  
  
Pulling up in front Sirius' apartment building, Sirius got out and went home. Amethyst, her true form back, sped off so fast that it was like the car had never been there. She and Severus were home less than an hour later.  
  
  
  
When Severus got out of bed and left their bedchamber, Amethyst did not move and did not acknowledge that she knew he'd moved. She opened her eyes when she heard his feet on the stairs, heading for the attic. She knew he was probably going onto the roof for air. They were both sopping wet with the sweat of their passion and Amethyst was not a millisecond from sleep when Severus moved, disturbing her.  
  
She sat up and closed her eyes. Severus was in the attic, all right. She looked through his eyes as he approached a trunk. She watched as he opened the trunk. Then a very slow smile spread across her face. She saw his hand reach for the case and she cut the connection she had with him.  
  
She got out of bed and left the room. She was climbing the attic stairs when the music began. She paused and listened to him for a full minute before she continued up the stairs. The saw the open trunk and approached it. The night was cool and she was feeling the beginnings of a chill. She took one of the shirts that had been cushioning the cello in its case. She put it on, but did not pull her long hair out of it. She saw the open attic window and went through it.  
  
Severus was propped against one of the chimneys, oblivious to the December air. The moonlight glistened off of his wet hair. He'd put on one of the old shirts he'd most likely found in the trunk also. He was playing his old cello. Amethyst had not seen this cello since the last night they'd seen each other, before she'd gone to America. They'd sat up here, on this roof, on the houses old site, and he'd played for her. This very melody as a matter of fact. She would never forget that. For the last time, as it turned out.  
  
The music suddenly stopped and Amethyst was brought back to the here and now. They looked at each other for a very long time.  
  
"I didn't mean to wake you." he said, "I'm sorry."  
  
"You never have needed to apologise to me."  
  
"I was suddenly overcome with the desire to come up here and play. It was like the old cello was calling to me."  
  
Amethyst said nothing, but nodded once.  
  
"I haven't played since the last night we were together. Before you died." he glanced down at the cello. "Before I died." he sighed, "I haven't touched it since. Haven't even looked at it since."  
  
Amethyst climbed from where she stood at the open window up to the chimney. She sat a little away from him, facing forward, not looking at him. "I was here." she whispered. "We'd been up half the night making love and we came up here to cool down. You played that very tune for me."  
  
Severus switched the bow from his right hand to his left, where he held it with the cello. With his free hand, he pulled Amethysts hair out of her shirt. He then caressed her face. He took Amethysts' chin in her hand, leaned towards her and kissed her gently.  
  
"Play for me, Severus." she whispered.  
  
He did. 


End file.
